Carmine and Bubblegum
by MerhppDerhpp
Summary: There were those who believed that ninja with civilian backgrounds were inferior to ninja hailing from clans. She believed otherwise. Grey OC. AU. Non-Massacre. UNDER REVISION.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **Chapter one; REVISED. Warning: This story is AU. This story is not an OC-insert. Please remember that certain canon facts will be different in this story. Thank you. Enjoy.

* * *

Haruno Kizashi grew up in Konohagakure with his mother, father and little brother. Aside from their peculiarly pink shades of hair colour and their jovial personalities which brought forth a tonne of horrible puns, they were like any other civilian family within the village.

When Kizashi became interested in ninjas at a young age, he had learned that he had a special talent in chakra control. It was then that he wanted to learn more about being a ninja and using chakra, so he was enrolled into the academy and the Haruno family had received a ninja as a member for the first time in the long time. The road to being a civilian-born shinobi was hard when there were many prestigious clans within the village, but Kizashi's nature had allowed him to become a successful jounin with a smile in spite of the war that had descended upon them.

And though he had his family who supported his decisions, there was some part of him that made him feel lonely. That was, until he met a woman named Mebuki whom had come to Konohagakure from Tetsu no Kuni as a vacation of sorts as a means to get away from her hometown, even though a war was raging on.

Mebuki had come from a long line of samurai, but she herself had remained a civilian whilst her four brothers and sister went on to embrace their heritage. Although, underestimating the blonde woman was definitely a mistake as she seemed to possess an unnatural amount of strength for a civilian. Of course, even though she had decided not to take up the sword, her family had felt it proper to teach her their ways of training the body so she would have a better chance at life. So, they had taught her how to use the naginata because the world was a fierce one.

So, because of her heritage and family teachings, the young woman had become rather serious in personality which heavily clashed against Kizashi's when the two had first met. She found his sakura-shaped hair ridiculous, whilst he found her large, singular bang that hung in her face rather endearing even if it was to hide the size of her forehead. The two had argued over many things that people found to be so trivial, but it brought them together and even seemed to become something of normality. To her, the jounin's personality was almost like a breath of fresh air and allowed her to let loose since she had been surrounded by many stone-face relatives all her life.

When Mebuki had to leave, they had become rather close and found that perhaps, they had fallen for one another. It was abrupt and done in such a clumsy manner that the woman had thought he was pulling another one of his jokes when he went on one knee and presented a ring made of rose-carmine agate, asking her to marry him. Shocked, but otherwise unable to say no since she had realised that despite his annoyances, she had come to love him in such a short amount of time; she had said yes and hugged him after getting a little teary.

First, they went to the Haruno family and broke the news, which brought on a lot of horrible but amusing puns about marriage, weddings and the like. So then Kizashi had decided to come along to her home, to introduce himself to Mebuki's family and to keep her safe.

After a long and tiring test of sorts brought onto him by Mebuki's family to see if he was worthy to wed her, Kizashi had successfully received blessings from his fiancée's kin. He was charismatic and was able to bring smiles to many of her blank-faced relatives that seemed to always be uptight. After a series of celebrations and farewells, Mebuki then packed all her belongings for the move to Konoha.

Due to Kizashi's earnings as a shinobi, they were able to live in a comfortable two-storey house that had a master bedroom and three other bedrooms. It was located in one of the better parts of the village, where those with enough money could live, whether you were a rich civilian or a hard-working shinobi.

They married within the year and Mebuki became pregnant. During her pregnancy, she was even more scarier and fatigued than when Kizashi's mother was pregnant with his brother.

Their first child was born in February whom they decided to name Saki. Saki had fair, almost pale skin, with carmine-coloured hair and dark, jade-coloured eyes that seemed to tell the beginnings of an intelligent girl. During her birth, she hadn't cried at all and only made minor sounds the entire time; which brought on the worry if something was wrong with her and the mother when Mebuki had suddenly passed out as she first held her child. Kizashi was panicking in more ways than one, but he had immediately calmed when his wife had woken up and his daughter had been checked and diagnosed as perfectly healthy.

Saki was almost too quiet for a newborn, but she was generally rather active in that she would be calmly staring at ceilings for hours on end or reading the learning books scattered around her. Her parents felt a little tired after coming into contact with her even though she was an easy child to look after, it was a strange and fairly unnoticed experience. Her development seemed to come in leaps and bounds, to their surprise, as she seemed to be developing faster than what a normal baby would. And yet, her parents couldn't help but admit the fact that they were worried about her never crying and simply making displeased sniffles or mumbles.

All in all, their first child was a peculiar girl whom they thought was smart and quiet, but she seemed to shy away from affection after attempting to embrace it.

Their second child was born a year later, in March whom they named Sakura. Sakura's skin was also fair, whilst her hair was the shade of bubblegum or cherry blossoms (hence her name) and her eyes the colour of shamrock that held the brightness of the sun. Her forehead was a tad larger than normal, something that she had inherited from her mother but it brought forth no health issues so it was promptly ignored by her loving parents. Her birth was more normal than her sister's, as she had cried loudly and her mother didn't pass out after holding her. She brought more trouble to the table what with her ability to cry so much over everything as she was just a baby, and since Kizashi and Mebuki were used to the quiet nature of their first, it was quite the change.

Sakura was practically the opposite of her elder sister, she was loud and laughed and giggled at many things and always seemed to always need someone to play with her. Saki would often sit across from her little sister, doing her best to teach her sibling how to spell with the toy blocks. More often than not, playing with Saki seemed to tire out Sakura far more quickly than when she played with either of her parents.

Their second child was a bright and happy girl who was drawn to affection from others, even from her sister.

The Harunos were a strange but happy family, with nothing having gone wrong until the day the Kyuubi had attacked their village. Sakura was only seven months whilst Saki was one year and eight months when it happened. Kizashi had to go with the other ninjas whilst Mebuki held her daughters like a lifeline, trying to comfort them as even Saki cried along with her sister for the first time.

Kizashi had lived, but there were so many casualties that it was hard to smile with the atmosphere. His father had unfortunately been one of the many who had lost their lives in the attack, but Konoha tried to pull itself back together and the jounin had to move on in order to support the family he had now.

As his two daughters grew, he and his wife began to grasp hold of even more evidence to their contrasting personalities. Mebuki believed that Saki was alike those in her family who always kept a straight face and was generally quiet whilst Sakura was like Kizashi's family, where they radiated cheerfulness and smiles. Sakura liked to play a lot and basically resembled a rather normal child with a strange hair colour, whereas Saki tended to ignore the thought of playing in favour of just sitting and reading books that should've been far above her level.

When talking to new people, Sakura was the one who became shy and unsure of herself because of her larger-than-average forehead, often hiding behind one of her family members. Saki, on the other hand, had absolutely no trouble communicating with others to the point that she was the epitome of the word 'blunt'. It tended to give her a bad impression with new people as they were unused to such a thing, but the elder Haruno sister didn't seem to care about others' opinions of her and simply continued about her day.

Because of other children's reactions to Sakura's forehead, Saki had grown to dislike the concept and act of bullying. In an attempt to make her sister more confident about herself, the elder sister had given her a red ribbon to accentuate her cuter features; and because of this, they had become much closer.

The two of them were like night and day, to the point that it was reflected in their clothes. The little pinkette liked wearing bright clothes like sundresses and red-coloured shorts and no-sleeved shirts that bore the white circular symbol that represented Mebuki's family. Her sister would often wear dark clothes that included fully sleeved shirts, long pants, gloves, socks and scarfs no matter what the season, since she disliked skin-to-skin contact to the point that she would make an effort to dodge any attempts. They were like winter and summer, but somehow, the two were incredibly close despite that.

On the other hand, they did resemble each other closely. It was easy to tell they were siblings, with their similar hairstyles with the most difference being Saki's bangs parting from the left and her darker shade of hair whilst Sakura's bangs parted at the middle and was obviously a lighter colour. Saki's features were like an aristocrat; with high cheekbones that had shown through her young face, sharp and intelligent jade eyes that showed little of her true emotions, a slender nose and moderately-sized lips that were nearly always set in a line.

Mebuki realised that this was another thing that reminded her of her family; her eldest looked more like the blonde woman's sister than her, because even if she was a member of that family, she never did look like one of the elite. Sakura's features were softer and resembled Mebuki more, with her lower cheekbones that hadn't quite formed through the remaining baby fat, wide and lively shamrock gems that were inviting, the same prominent forehead, small nose and small lips that were nearly always formed into a smile.

Saki liked to teach Sakura about the things within the overly advanced books she had, about the chakra pathway system, tenketsu and so on. The elder Haruno had surpassed her parents' expectations of being intelligent, as she had become fluent in their language so quickly at her young age that it was almost creepy how she used large words not many children would know, let alone understand the meaning behind them. And even though Sakura wasn't on her sister's level, she herself was a bundle of intelligence as well, since the information given to her by Saki was taken in with fervour. Even if the younger sibling liked to play a lot, she didn't mind just sitting and bonding with her sister on topics that children usually didn't bond over.

Because of their potential, Kizashi had asked them if they were interested in becoming ninjas, which brought on contemplative expressions on their youthful faces. Saki was the first to respond, agreeing to wanting to become a ninja as she felt it would further help her goals to learn of medical ninjutsu and the like. Sakura, encouraged by her sister's response, had then also agreed, saying that she wanted to help people by protecting them and healing them.

And so, Kizashi was pleasantly surprised to find that his daughters had inherited his ability to control chakra on an almost perfect level. Though, because of their age, they still needed to refine it even if there weren't many ninja who could reach that level of control at all. Upon hearing this, both his daughters showed him genuine smiles that warmed his heart.

Unfortunately, Mebuki wasn't as approving of their future job careers. Even if she grew up within a samurai family and knew that even they were always at risk, she didn't expect that her own children were willingly going to become ninja where they would become cold murderers and be in even more risk. When Kizashi had attempted to defuse her by telling his wife that Sakura wanted to heal people and that Saki wanted to further her knowledge rather than kill, it turned into one of the more serious arguments that they shared. It was enough that her husband was a jounin, where he could die at any time whilst being on high-levelled missions, but having her entire family apart from herself have that kind of thing happen at any time was too much.

Sakura, being the kind-hearted girl she was, didn't want her parents to fight and was even about to tell her mother that she changed her mind. However, Saki had managed to convince her that if it was something she really wanted to do, then not even their mother could stop her.

Even though the little pinkette felt upset at her mother's dismay, she couldn't help but remember the small smile her elder sister had given her when Saki had said that she would support her in her goals.

* * *

Five-year-old Haruno Sakura was anxious, because today was the day she would start to attend the academy where youths learned all there was to being a ninja. Her father was unfortunately on an assignment and was unable to attend the orientation, whilst her mother was too busy working at the tailors to the point of staying overnight. She probably forgot, but Sakura found that she was okay with that since she had someone else with her.

"Let's go, Sakura, you shouldn't start your first day by being late." Saki commented softly with a flat tone, watching as her little sister scurried about to prepare her lunch and put on her shoes whilst the elder Haruno waited at the door.

Sakura had her big sister with her, who had already started the academy the year ago and from today onward, would walk with her to school. A smile spread across the younger sibling's lips as she ran to grasp the gloved hand that was held out in front of her.

"Okay, I'm ready to go!" she stated with a chipper tone, locking the door after they exited the house and went to walk down the street that would lead them to the academy.

The tails of Saki's scarf trailed behind her and lightly brushed against her sister's face, but Sakura paid it no mind and continued to stick close to avoid being hit by someone of the crowd. Her elder sister liked wearing the light blue scarf given to her by one of their paternal uncles. The scarf itself was incredibly long, long enough that even though Saki wrapped it around her multiple times, the tails still brushed against her boot-covered ankles.

Sakura didn't mind the way her sister always wore gloves and dark clothes no matter the season, because even if others tried to belittle her for her peculiarities, she brushed them off without even looking back. The younger Haruno admired that of her sister as she fingered the red ribbon tied around her head absentmindedly. The carminette was the little pinkette's role model, she was the reason the young girl of five decided to go through with her goals, to strive forward and improve herself.

But she still had her insecurities. "What happens if they don't like me? What if I can't defend myself if they bully me? What if I start bullying them?" she asked questions in a rushed pace, anxiety bundled up with the prospect of being in a class where she had no friends and she wasn't strong enough to stop the bullies (thereby disappointing herself and her sister for not being stronger), or she herself turned into a bully when she was trying to just defend herself (which was also unfavourable because Saki strongly disliked bullies).

The smaller child was brought out of her pessimistic thoughts when she felt the reassuring squeeze on her hand, shamrocks eyes looking to see the dark jade that had turned to her. "You will find friends who will like you for you and you are strong enough to defend yourself from others who plan on bringing you down; you are strong enough that you won't become what you dislike, because I believe in you Sakura." her sister assured her in that dull tone of hers, but Sakura found that it was enough to bring her spirits back up.

A bright, genuine smile formed upon the pinkette's lips even as Saki turned her head back to the front to manoeuvre around a few civilians that seemed to be rushing somewhere. "Thanks, aneki! I'll do my best to make you proud, okay?"

"Do your best to make yourself proud too, Sakura." Saki commented quietly, glancing back at her little sister just as the academy came into view. "I want you to do what makes you happy."

Sakura's heart warmed at the faith and support she got from her sister as they weaved through the crowd, able to ignore the other people until she realised that they were already in the classroom that she would be in for the remainder of her schooling. Her eyes darted back and forth as she shuffled closer to the carminette, doubt beginning to seed its way back into her heart until she was poked in the forehead.

The pink-haired five-year-old blinked, looking back up at the carminette who stared down at her. "Remember what I said?" Saki asked, when she received a firm nod she continued, "Alright, don't worry so much, you'll be fine. I'll see you at the entrance after school. Be good."

Then Sakura was left in a room full of kids her age by herself.

* * *

"Saki-chan, you're earlier than usual."

Upon hearing her name and recognising the voice as she walked into her classroom, her eyes locked onto a pair of piercing lemon-coloured eyes that were half-lidded in a lazy manner when she looked to the back of the class. Mizushima Naoki was sitting atop the desk situated at the very back and by the window, his lips always curved into a sly smile and his light blue hair illuminated by the sun. He always wore a thick, black headband that covered his forehead and allowed his asymmetrical bangs to frame his face; the rest of his hair looked a tad wavy and random bits poked out like it didn't want to be fully tamed by a brush. The black theme of his clothing contrasted with his pale skin, his shirt having a high collar and longs sleeves whilst he wore baggy pants and black shinobi sandals.

The carminette had somehow managed to catch his eye during that one time his orphanage was invited to her fifth birthday party by her mother, and she had to resign herself to associating with him when she realised that they were in the same class. She found that even though the classroom was littered with her other classmates, he seemed to draw more attention without even trying. Her footsteps were silent as she made her way to the back, making eye contact with a glaring Hyuuga Neji who sat two seats in front of her before she simply ignored him and sat in the middle of the desk she shared with Naoki and one other.

The blue-haired boy shifted so that he was now sitting in his seat beside her, his attention fully focused on his classmate as he leaned a little too close for comfort. He had an annoying habit of invading her personal space, but she tried to ignore it even as a minute frown appeared on her face.

"Is your sister starting today?" Naoki asked casually, his tone, smile and gleaming eyes telling her that he already knew the answer. It seemed to be a habit of his, where he enjoyed asking questions even though he already knew the answers just because he found it fun to listen to people's responses.

"Mm." she confirmed softly without looking at him and instead pulling out several textbooks from her large, plain messenger bag. The boy next to her leaned over to get a better look, allowing her to catch the slight faltering of his admittedly creepy smile as he read over the titles.

"These are textbooks for third years and higher. Are you moving into another class?" he inquired softly when he turned to stare at her, his smile fully back in place. To the young Haruno, she had been around him long enough to know when he asked questions he genuinely didn't have the answer to, but made it sound like he knew anyway.

"No," Saki denied as she leaned forward to grab one of the books, her face shifting into a mild grimace when his breath brushed against her cheek, "I got them myself since I wanted to do a little light reading." she supplied, gently pushing Naoki back so he wasn't so close to her face as she focused her eyes on the books in front of her. She only saw his smile widen out of the corner of her eye.

"That's good, Saki-chan. I'd be bored without you with me." the equally peculiar boy replied, grabbing one of the tails of her scarf and bringing it to his lips. "Nasu-kun isn't enough to keep me entertained." he muttered quietly whilst his deskmate crossed her legs as if she were sitting on the floor and began to read a book about human organs.

"You know we'll probably be separated after our third year since I'll be taking the crash course that they offer at the end of that year for those with high grades. Then I'll take the courses in medical ninjutsu and genjutsu most likely until I turn twelve and get sorted into the genin teams where everyone else is meant to graduate." Saki explained indifferently, apparently already having a plan for her education.

Naoki's eyelids lowered in displeasure as he continued to stare at the carminette. "… I hope we get into the same team then. Maybe with Nasu-kun, because he's fun to tease." he commented, eyes shifting to the figure that just entered the class. "Speak of the devil and it shall appear."

Oshiro Takahiro was the third of their odd little trio. He had naturally tan skin that had gotten darker from being in the sun too much, sharp aqua-coloured eyes and spiky hair the colour of eggplant (hence Naoki's nickname for him). His bangs were long enough to frame his face and a thick lock ran down the middle of his face before it shifted to connect to another that covered a good portion of his left eye and then fanned out. He wore a navy shirt, black shorts, blue shinobi sandals and both his legs and arms were covered in bandages.

His eyes landed on the two at the back, making the trek towards them as more students began to filter in. He nodded to Saki in acknowledgment with his face in that default brooding expression of his before he scowled at the blue-haired boy on the other side of her.

"Have you been training again, Nasu-kun? You'll end up breaking a bone and stunting your growth at this rate." Naoki commented casually as the girl between them leaned back to allow them to look at each other without having to look around her, since she was currently taller than both of them.

"He broke his wrist one time." she provided absentmindedly, turning the page of the book in her lap. Takahiro was always training because his father and uncle were taijutsu nuts, so it was a miracle when the boy wasn't injured in some way. Saki didn't mind, it gave her a willing test subject so she could test out the medical ninjutsu she managed to execute. She was only good enough to heal small, shallow cuts and bruises and despite her chakra control, it still took a toll on her tiny reserves. It was better than nothing, she thought, as she would improve in the future.

"I thought I told you to stop calling me that." Takahiro frowned. "You call Saki by her name."

Naoki's eye lit up as he nuzzled the scarf tail in his hands. "I like Saki-chan's name the way it is. Besides, the last time I tried to give her a nickname, she remained unaffected. It's more fun when they react like you do to my nicknames." he chuckled, eyes glistening with amusement.

The aqua-eyed boy scowled. "Even if I was to get used to it, you still wouldn't stop calling me that, would you?" he asked dubiously.

"Nope!" the Mizushima replied with a pleasant smile.

Takahiro sighed in exasperation. "You're like a sadist." he muttered before turning away to stare at the front of the class.

Lemon eyes glanced at Saki, who looked up to make eye contact since she could feel the intensity within his gaze. "What do you think, Saki-chan? Am I a sadist?" Naoki asked softly, propping an elbow on the desk and letting his cheek rest on his hand as he leaned forward to listen to her answer.

"You show signs of a sociopath, which I believe has sadism coexisting with sociopathic personality traits." Saki replied monotonously, blinking when the blue-haired boy's eyes gleamed. His eyes were more expressive than she initially believed, but she assumed that would be because she didn't know all there was to sociopaths. "Either way," she turned her eyes to the approaching classmate that had too much energy than she liked, "I'll possibly remain as your unlikely associate for a while. You intrigue me."

"Saki-san! You're quite the loyal person, I admire you!" Rock Lee exclaimed as he reached her desk, a blindingly bright smile on his face even though he sported all kinds of injuries. His braid had twigs in them and his clothes were covered in dirt.

"Lee." Saki greeted with a deadpan. "Have you managed to break less bones this time around?" she asked with a tilt of her head.

The eccentric boy held up three fingers. "Only three fingers this time, Saki-san! I'll do my best to make it less fingers next time and become stronger!" he proclaimed determinedly, holding up a fist and sporting a determined expression.

"That's good. I'd like to try healing you one time again, but I can't heal anything that's serious so you should go to the hospital soon." the carminette advised, returning her eyes back onto her book to avoid the pitiful expression on her classmate's face.

Lee sniffed dramatically, "You're such a good person, Saki-san! I will make sure your faith in me is not disappointed!" he yelled, unable to hear the snort from the Hyuuga over his obnoxiousness. Saki's lips quirked since she knew the Hyuuga usually found such things as snorting unbecoming.

"Shut up and sit down, Lee!" their teacher demanded just as he entered the classroom, looking tired and holding a cup of coffee in one hand whilst his other held his clipboard. He looked as though he had stayed up all night what with the bags under his eyes, his glasses being crooked and his dark hair in the style of bed hair.

"Ah, of course sensei!" the child in question gave a hurried farewell to his classmate before he rushed over to his seat at the front of the classroom.

After a moment, Takahiro poked the girl beside him, prompting her to turn to him. "Hey, what's a sociopath?" he asked seriously.

Saki sighed as Naoki chuckled.

* * *

Shamrock eyes shifted left and right, trying to memorise where other people sat so that Sakura didn't accidentally sit in their seat by mistake in the future. She had chosen to sit at the second last desk on the right side of the room, beside a plain-looking boy who looked like he wanted to be at home sleeping with another student on the other side of him. That left two seats, one in the middle of the two boys in front of her and one down in the front middle desk. The seat she sat in now was her third option.

The boy in front of her was the cute Uchiha and she would've sat beside him if it weren't for the fact the rest of the female population of her class would be out for her blood. She had managed to remain rather unnoticed thanks to the commotion he brought to the table, but she could've easily taken the spotlight by sitting next to him. He wasn't the only one who seemed to be the focus of attention either, since the boy who sat a seat over from the Uchiha was being noticed by all, except the attention he received was the polar opposite.

Sakura had ignored what Iruka-sensei was saying, since he was merely repeating what he had said to the adults that were there only a few moments ago and instead focused on the two in front of her.

The raven-haired boy looked rather broody, his eyes focusing on their sensei but she could see him shaking his leg in irritation due to the admittedly annoying amount of hushed whispers from the girls about his person. She felt pity for the Uchiha, since she assumed it would be annoying if the opposite gender kept talking about her and staring at her with metaphorical heart eyes. As her eyes then landed on the blonde boy again, she could hear as the entire classroom whispered harsh things about him being some kind of demon. He seemed to ignore it, focusing entirely on Iruka-sensei and happily bouncing around in his seat whenever the chuunin mentioned something he deemed cool.

Her eyes shifted from the two, one dressed in dark colours and the other in light. The air around them was the complete opposite, where they received different kinds of attention but reacted how the other should've reacted. It was almost awing how they sat at the same desk like a scale holding opposites that were somehow equal to each other.

Sakura silently thanked her sister for her influence, allowing her to be aware of her surroundings and the people within it. If she hadn't have known any better, she felt as though she would simply conform to everyone else's behaviour, which she found displeasing. The little pinkette had no idea who the blonde boy was and she only knew the raven-haired boy was an Uchiha, but she basically knew nothing and found it completely unfair to treat them the way her classmates were treating them.

"Alright!" Iruka-sensei clapped his hands together with a smile. "It's time to introduce yourselves." he explained, which earned varying sounds of protest and reluctance.

The young Haruno agreed wholeheartedly about not wanting to do such a thing. She'd have to stand up and introduce herself to the entire class when she'd be fine having no presence whatsoever.

"Tell everyone your name, what you like, what you dislike, your hobbies and your dreams for the future." the chuunin went on. "I want you all to be nice and respect each other. Okay, starting from the front row, left."

Where was a hole that she could jump into and curl up into a ball? Sakura sighed, pulling out a notebook and pen so that she could record her classmate's information and their most prominent feature in case she needed it for the future. She wouldn't have done this initially, but since it was advice from her aneki, she decided that it couldn't hurt. Sakura wasn't sure how she'd use the information, but it was only the first day.

There were quite a few clan members within her class. The two in front of her were named Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto. Curiously enough, Sakura was sure that she had heard the name 'Uzumaki' somewhere before but couldn't quite remember where from. Naruto liked ninjas and ramen whilst Sasuke liked his clan, tomatoes and his brother. The blonde wanted to be Hokage, which caused many of her classmates to laugh whilst the ravenhead wanted to become the chief of the military police.

By the time she finished writing down information of the newly revealed Inuzuka Akio beside her and the Hyuuga named Hinata beside him, she realised that it was her turn to introduce herself. A grimace appeared as she felt her face go pale. Taking a deep breath, the young girl remembered the faith her aneki had in her and stood up; she fiddled her fingers anxiously and tried to look at the front of the classroom.

"My… my name is…" she began softly, until she was cut off by her sensei.

"I'm really sorry," the chuunin apologised with a sincere smile, "but could you speak up please so everyone can hear you?"

A blush appeared on her face as she nodded shyly, trying to ignore the small snickers of her classmates. Taking another deep breath, Sakura touched the ribbon in her hair to remind her to be herself and to have more self-confidence. When her eyes opened, they were firm and determined.

"My name is Haruno Sakura. What I like are my family, training and sweets. I don't like any kind of bullying and when people judge without knowing who the other person really is. My hobbies are playing trivia games, memorising new materials for training and well, training. My dream for the future is to become a great kunoichi so that I can make my onee-chan and myself proud, as well as help people and protect the village." Sakura introduced herself with an unwavering voice and eyes that were lit with the vision of becoming an awesome ninja that would bring her family pride.

Unbeknownst to her, the class was momentarily stunned by her introduction. She made many of her classmates remember that they were at an academy where they would become ninjas to protect their village, where there dreams of having perfect hair every day or looking beautiful for all eternity seemed trivial. Then, when the pink-haired girl sat down, the spell was broken and introductions resumed even as the pink-haired girl had caught a few staring eyes.

Sakura smiled to herself, believing that she had done well for her introduction. Aneki would surely praise her for her self-confidence, she thought. When the blonde boy in front of her had his head turned to look at her, she noticed the vibrant blue of his eyes that were like the sky as they held some kind of awe in them. A light blush dusted her cheeks as she gave him a small smile and wave. His eyes seemed to widen in surprise before a wide and goofy grin plastered itself onto his fox-like face and he waved back. She just then noticed the whisker marks on his cheeks and found them intriguing.

Her eyes shifted to see a pair of onyx eyes looking at her too, which caused her to widen her eyes in surprise. The Uchiha boy was looking at her too! Then she felt rude for possibly gawking so she smiled and waved at him too, causing it to be his turn for a look of surprise before he slowly gave a nod of acknowledgment and turned back to the front of the classroom.

Maybe she would make friends after all.

* * *

"Tadaima!" Sakura called out excitedly, hurriedly removing her shoes and then running towards the kitchen with her feet loudly impacting with the wooden floor to signal her approach.

"Okaeri!" Mebuki replied, smiling as she hugged her youngest who had entered the kitchen just as the older woman was going to get something from the fridge. Her eyes looked up to see if her eldest would make an appearance, but when she didn't, the woman frowned in disapproval at her daughter's rude antics.

Saki had hummed almost inaudibly in a greeting when she walked through the entrance, but never bothered to do more than that. Even more so today since the carminette was not pleased with her mother's absence from Sakura's orientation. So Saki had removed her shoes and silently made her way upstairs and to her room, ignoring her mother.

The blonde woman focused her attention back to the youngest Haruno. "How was your first day, sweetie? I'm sorry I couldn't make it, my client wanted his clothes early today." she apologised, giving the small girl a bag of konpeito as an apology. The tailors was right beside the confectionary store and Mebuki was good friends with the owner.

"It's okay, kaa-chan!" Sakura forgave her easily, thanking the woman for the sweets. "The others were nice to me and I might've made a friend or two!" she explained excitedly, pulling a chair out in the dining room so she could sit.

Her mother smiled as her child continued to recount her first day at the academy, but Mebuki couldn't stop the festering irritation and worry at being reminded that both her children were enrolled in the ninja academy instead of the civilian one. The only reason she agreed was because it was three against one, with even Kizashi's family supporting the two children's goals. They would grow up and become jaded, become murderers in cold blood. How could she support that? She would've had an easier time supporting them if they wanted to become samurai, since samurai were neutral and didn't go out of their way to go into enemy territory and kill everything.

"Do you have homework?" Sakura's mother asked as she turned back to the stove where she had been working on dinner. Mebuki's eyes lost a small bit of light at the thought of their family dinners. Some days Kizashi wasn't home and so it was mostly Sakura and her talking whilst Saki remained silent and stuck leaves to her. The tension between herself and her eldest was growing, she could feel it.

"Yup. Just some simple maths and stuff since it's only the first day. I'm going to go see aneki and borrow one of her books though to learn more about medical ninjutsu, she has lots of them." Sakura replied, putting a blue konpeito in her mouth.

"She does," Mebuki replied, turning to her daughter and pulling out another sweet, "give this to her, I know she loves chichi dango."

The pinkette slid off the chair and grabbed the sweets with a beaming smile. "We'll come down for dinner!" she assured, turning to run through the dining room to get to the stairs so she could go to Saki's bedroom.

A sigh escaped the blonde woman. She wondered what it would be like if her daughters had decided to remain civilians. They would be safe… but would they be happy?

* * *

Saki's room was the biggest aside from the master bedroom that Mebuki and Kizashi shared. Sakura's room was beside hers and smaller, but she had an inbuilt closet unlike Saki who instead had a wardrobe. The walls were a very light green, like all the bedrooms but the furniture within it were neutral or dark shades of black and grey. The door was at the right corner of the room, with the wall opposite of it holding a large window with black curtains in the middle. She had a dark, simple cabin bed against the wall with the window at the corner, the connected desk against the adjacent wall where her black bookshelf took up the rest of the wall. The wardrobe was against the wall on the other adjacent wall where the window was, with an old scientific skeleton that her father had managed to snag from the hospital along with a smaller shelf that held her scrolls. At the end of her bed were three bean bags of varying dark shades with the walls that weren't covered holding posters of diagrams of nerves and tenketsu.

Which left the low, black kotatsu table in the middle of her room where the two sisters were sitting at. The table was filled with various books that were open at random pages as Saki was reading multiple things that interested her whilst also doing the extra homework she had asked for from her teacher. Every so often, she popped a chichi dango in her mouth as she worked.

"So you're going to use medical ninjutsu when you become a shinobi too, aneki?" Sakura asked curiously as she sat across from her sister and worked on her own homework.

"Yes. It suits my interests, along with genjutsu." Saki replied without looking up, turning the pages of three books as she wrote things down at an admirable pace. "It requires high intelligence and refined chakra control and I have both requirements. I want to know how to put people back together as well as be able to tear them apart. Therefore, I plan on becoming a battle medic-nin."

Her little sister frowned. "You can use it to hurt people? Why would you want to hurt people with it?" she asked childishly, bemusement written on her face.

The elder Haruno ceased in her multitasking to properly look at her sister. "We will become ninjas. Ninjas have to hurt others in order to protect the things precious to them. I can use medical ninjutsu to both heal and kill. I can become skilled in torture or assassination missions. I have no qualms about taking other people's lives if it meant the things precious to me remain alive." she explained with a dull tone, even talking about a serious topic such as the taking of lives unable to bring forth emotion within her voice.

Sakura's brow was creased as she thought deeply upon the subject. She didn't want to hurt people, she wanted to help people… but sometimes there would be someone who's not her friend and they would try to hurt those she's trying to protect and heal.

"I don't want to use medical ninjutsu to kill people… I want use it to save people." the pinkette said after a while, her expression serious. "But if I have to… I would. Only if I have to."

Saki's eyes softened slightly as the corner of her lips tilted upwards as she stared at her little sister. "I will support you no matter what you choose Sakura. You are your own person and not my shadow, so don't worry too much about trying to follow me in my methods of being a ninja." she stated truthfully.

Sakura was naturally very kind-hearted, to the point that she would heal a stranger in the middle of the street out of the goodness of her heart. Saki knew that she wouldn't heal someone out of the goodwill, she would do it to test herself, to remind herself that she could heal a wound as well as inflict it.

"You really are the best, aneki." Saki's little sister replied, smiling genuinely at her. "I'll become a great medic-nin one day! I'll be awesome!" the young girl exclaimed, throwing a fist in the air enthusiastically, unintentionally reminded her elder sister of Rock Lee.

"I have no doubt." Saki replied. "I'll lend you some of my books, so take care of them."

"Of course!"

* * *

"Why do you try when you will always be weak, Haruno?"

Saki sighed in exasperation. She had hoped Hyuuga Neji would've given up in his attempts to force his beliefs on her, but that was merely an impossible dream it seemed. Their first year together was eventful when they had first become sparring partners and they also had to join in teams during the team building exercises. Of course with him being a Hyuuga, it wasn't surprising when he had beat her the first time around, nor was it surprising when he thought he was too good to work with her and that one other kid. What was surprising and utterly annoying was the fact that he liked to ramble about how her being born a civilian meant that she would always be weak no matter what and should simply accept that since it was her fate.

For a child to be spouting nonsense, she assumed that he must've gone through some kind of traumatic event which might've included the Hyuuga Affair all those years ago. She knew for a fact that he was in the branch family of the Hyuuga clan, since he had decided during an angry rant to show her the brand mark atop of his forehead which signified his fate of always serving the main family. It was something she genuinely found unfortunate and wouldn't have minded associating with him if it weren't for the fact that he was trying to constantly convert her to his fatalistic views.

He also seemed to use his classmates as some kind of outlet, telling them he was superior whilst they were weak and there was nothing they could do to change it. Lee was one of his most prominent victims, due to the boy's inability to understand genjutsu and ninjutsu. It signified him as a bully in her eyes and she found that rather annoying.

"When will you give up, Hyuuga?" she asked monotonously, her eyes half-lidded as she looked at him as if she bored at the sight of him. The Hyuuga scowled at her, moving into his usual gentle fist stance, something that Saki herself wanted to learn since it included attacking people's chakra system directly. It was truly unfortunate that she wasn't on better terms with him. "You sound as if you're suffering by this fatalistic belief of yours."

He charged, his byakugan inactive due to the restrictions of the students using kekkei genkai. She knew that he had memorise where all the tenketsu points were, since she tended to watch her classmates to understand them better, but she also knew that he wasn't always on point compared to when his dojutsu was active.

Both children were quick, but Neji seemed to be the only one actively trying to hit his opponent whom was more partial to dodging and weaving around him. She liked to study people when she sparred with them, so she knew that by the deeper furrowing of his brow, he was getting frustrated. He wasn't the type to yell at her to keep still, since that was stupid and the Hyuuga despised stupidity.

"Someone weak will always remain weak, because that is their fate. Nothing can change that." Neji abruptly commented, unintentionally breaking Saki's concentration enough to allow him to strike at her shoulder. To his annoyance, he missed as she spun away from him, so he attempted to grab one of her outrageously long scarf tails but was unable to as she had pulled them out of his reach.

"Just like someone born in the Branch House can never be more than a servant to the Main House… right?" Saki retorted in an almost casual way, her expression remaining the same even as he managed to hit her arm but missed the node. She took that chance to grab his press down on his ulnar nerve, causing the boy to cringe and release a gasp as she pulled him forward to kick his feet and send him to the ground. Unfortunately for her, he managed to snag one of her scarf tails and drag her down with him.

The Hyuuga grunted as his back hit the ground and Saki landed crudely on top of him, her elbow pressed against his gut with her other hand entangled in his hair. Lavender eyes blinked in confusion when hair that wasn't his own brushed against his face, then he realised that it belonged to the girl on top of him. Irritated, Saki ripped her scarf tail from the limp hand of the Hyuuga and sat up as she tried to disentangle her fingers from his surprisingly silky hair. Neji sat up as well, a frown on his face and an involuntarily dash of colour on his cheeks as he grabbed her hand and began to free his hair from it. After her hand was freed, she stood up with a mild scowl and held her hand out to the brunet who reluctantly accepted it and stood up as well. They just barely bowed to each other, calling the end of the spar and then dusted themselves off as well as adjust scarfs and massage wrists.

"Next time, Haruno." Neji promised as she moved to silently step past him.

She stopped and glanced at him, finding it within herself to reply. "You know Hyuuga… I wouldn't have minded associating with you if it weren't for the fact that you seem to hurt others because you yourself are hurting." she commented softly so only he could hear. Saki blinked when his eyes widened in shock, but she had already decided to walk away to Takahiro and Naoki by the time he turned his head to face her.

Neji glared at the Haruno's back, someone whom he found to be an enigma and probably even more stoic than he. She said things that confused and annoyed him, whilst also saying things that made him feel as if he was somewhat transparent. She spoke like she knew his problems and it annoyed the hell out of him, because some part of the child knew that the carmine-haired girl was right. The Hyuuga clicked his tongue as he turned away from her form and walked away, ignoring that stares of his other female classmates. What the hell did she mean that she would associate with him, he wondered?

Unbeknownst to him, Saki was not as unaffected as he thought. He managed to get under her skin with how much he preached about her being weak. She understood that he had problems, but he had no right to take it out on her or anyone else. The carminette found that people's thoughts of her were rather irrelevant, but when one kept voicing their thoughts over and over again, it begins to get aggravating.

Fate? Every person on this planet was tied down by some inescapable fate and they should just accept it?

Saki didn't believe it or accept it. It may have been Neji's views and that would've been fine if he had just kept it to himself. Did fate cause her and her sister to become ninjas? Did fate cause her to have her weird condition? Was it fate that she had decided to associate herself with Naoki and Takahiro? Coincidence, perhaps. All this stuff about fate, about destiny was too much. It would cause unnecessarily deep thoughts on life that she wasn't in the mood for.

She was silent even as Naoki and Takahiro bantered with each other, watching their classmates finish up on the taijutsu session. Jade eyes stared at the two boys. Were they her friends? She knew the definition, but did she feel affection for them? Did they feel affection for her? That's what it was to feel mutual affection, wasn't it? To create bonds and the like that the academy is always on about.

Saki sighed heavily, one unlike the way a child should. Perhaps it was the burden of having an intelligent mind, she would always ask questions and think of their deeper meanings.

She could only hope that she would be prepared for the trials ahead.

* * *

**A/N: **Reviews are love. Reviews are life. It's never ogre. Thanks to my beta; Coq-on-Face the Third.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Chapter two; REVISED. Enjoy.

* * *

There were just some things that Saki didn't understand. That included relationships children had with their mothers; she read about how mothers tended to have something called 'maternal instinct' which tended to bring out protective urges with their child and basically taking care of them. She read how children generally created strong bonds with their mothers and therein lies the obstacle that doesn't allow her to understand it; bonds were everywhere, everyone had bonds, but why did hers seem so different to others?

The question ran through her mind whenever she heard one of her classmates complaining about their doting mothers, or seeing a mother and child in the street and holding hands and generally being affectionate. They would interact happily, even the so-called doting having a good-natured undertone.

She even saw the supposed bond between her sister and mother.

And yet…

"Saki, I've told you time and time again to stop sticking leaves to yourself at the dinner table." Mebuki snapped at her eldest daughter, who sat across from her at the table. Her eyes were set in a disapproving frown.

Yet… why is it that she didn't receive that good-natured doting? The loving gaze or the affectionate words? Even when she was doing nothing wrong, she didn't receive any of that. The bond that they shared was so different and she didn't understand why.

"It helps keep my multitasking skills up to par." Saki replied impassively, staring directly into her mother's eyes with an indifferent gaze as she always did. She made note of the irritated expression her mother sported and the agitation within her body language. Saki was the reason for Mebuki's annoyance.

"Just l_eaf _her be, dear." Kizashi spoke up with his usual smile, effectively cutting off whatever his wife was about to say. Still, his casual demeanour and horrible use of puns caused the blonde woman to divert her irritated attention to him.

"Kizashi, you need to be more strict on her! She can't be practising her ninja skills all the time, especially when we're having dinner together!" Mebuki chided him, accusingly pointing a finger at her expressionless daughter who had finished eating and was simply staring at her plate.

The dull pink-haired male was unable to form a reply, as the daughter they were 'discussing' had stood up and silently taken her dishes to the kitchen, before walking past them to get to the stairs.

"Thanks for the food." she said softly. Kizashi noticed more leaves attached to her lower body with a small smile.

Sakura blinked, anxiously looking between her parents and the stairs where her sister had disappeared before her father gave her a reassuring smile and gently told her to continue eating.

Mebuki sighed, propping her elbow on the table and covering her forehead with her hand. "Honestly, what am I going to do with her?" she muttered, exasperated.

* * *

Saki knew that her mother was very affectionate when she wanted to be. With Sakura, with her nieces and nephews when the family went to Tetsu no Kuni to visit.

The carminette didn't mind travelling to visit her extended family. They were quiet and they didn't try to touch her face all the time. They told her of old stories from their ancestors, of techniques and weaponry. Saki liked Aunt Megumi most, who was Mebuki's sister. There was a connection between niece and aunt, something that Saki didn't feel like she had with her mother.

Her cousins from that side of the family let her be when she didn't want to spend time with them. Most of the time they respected her choices and she respected them. Sakura enjoyed playing with them and sometimes Saki would have an intelligent conversation with one of her cousins that were a little older.

Her samurai family were known as the Ensō, which was why their symbol was a simple circle. They taught her the basics of kenjutsu, but she knew they wouldn't teach her anything that she would have to dedicate her life to, because she was to become a ninja. They would allow her to master the basics and to allow her to teach herself with kenjutsu.

It was relatives from her father's side that she disliked visiting. They were loud and boisterous, they always tried to force her to play with cousins that lacked the mentality that she had. They tried to pinch her cheeks or ruffle her hair and her mood would become entirely sour for the rest of the day. People poked her, pulled her clothes and the younger ones threw things at her.

Saki would watch from afar as Mebuki would watch Sakura play with her relatives. The woman always had this soft, loving smile and an affectionate gaze that the carminette realised she had never received. Mebuki was a tough woman, but she was affectionate in her own way.

That's why her eldest daughter had tried to be more affectionate in the past, in hope of seeing that same smile on her face.

_Mebuki was tired. She was exhausted from trying to work on a few projects at the tailors whilst also trying to look after Sakura and Saki. The woman simply wanted to curl up into a ball and sleep, but she couldn't because Kizashi still wasn't home yet. _

_Sakura was playing with a few blocks on the floor whilst Saki sat on the couch, staring at her sister with that unnerving blank stare of hers. Mebuki sat on the other side of the couch, trying to subtly take a nap. _

_That was until something had touched her. There was a soft touch on her hand, and Mebuki felt like it was gradually draining more of her energy and so her foul mood had increased. Her head snapped up to glare at the offending touch, only find that it was Saki who had willingly touched her. _

_The small toddler had quickly removed her tiny hand, jade eyes wide with surprise and mixed emotions that Mebuki couldn't quite decipher in her fatigue. _

_"What is it, Saki?" the woman sighed, barely even trying to sound less exhausted and annoyed than she was. Her hand covered her eyes to block out any light. _

_Mebuki didn't see the glistening of tears in her eldest daughter's eyes, nor the quivering of her lips. She didn't see the tiny hands slowly, shakily reaching out to touch her mother's hand again. _

_Then when she did make contact, Mebuki had all but snatched her hand away from the strange draining sensation with fervour. It was probably her overly exhausted state that allowed the woman to completely ignore the fact that she was leaving her daughters by themselves, but the Haruno woman quickly stood up, making a sound of annoyance before walking away and up to the master bedroom where she would be able to rid herself of her sleep-deprived state. _

_Behind her, on the couch, jade eyes were pinned on the very spot her mother was sitting only moments ago. The little girl was silent, only the sound of light footsteps walking up the stairs and her sister's pleased sounds at building a tower with the blocks. _

_Silently, without a sniff or sob, a small stream of tears ran down the carminette's tiny cheeks._

Saki realised at that moment, that the hope of seeing her mother's loving smile directed at her was a fruitless one. The young girl was intelligent; she knew that touching anyone, including her sister, seemed to drain them of some of their energy, as a small part of her would feel revitalised whilst the person she touched seemed to act as though they hadn't gotten enough sleep.

She also knew that her touching others seemed to bombard her with feelings that were not her own. When she had touched her mother in hopes of making the woman look at her lovingly, all she felt were negative emotions that she seemed to amplify. Those emotions, the anger, frustration and irritation were so strong that Saki just knew that her mother did not love her.

So Saki gave up on trying to win her mother's love, because there was none to be given to her. That was why she didn't receive the same treatment as other children. So the small child simply felt that it was for the best if she let Mebuki be.

Instead, she focused on her own condition. She never seemed to find time on researching on it, but Saki felt like it was long overdue and it would continue to nag at her if she didn't figure out what was wrong with her soon. No one else seemed to feel the same when they came into contact with people, so books and scrolls were her salvation.

It was stated in various books that babies need nutrients from the mother's body during their development in the womb. Also, small amounts of the mother's chakra are absorbed for further development, which is why family members tended to have similar chakra signatures. Usually, once born the babies no longer take any chakra because they no longer need their mother's chakra to grow. In some cases, some babies would continue to take chakra upon direct contact with their skin.

Since the baby is unable to properly convert chakra from other sources into their own reserves since their chakra coils have yet to develop, the chakra splits into the two forms of spiritual and physical. The spiritual chakra would enhance the mind whilst the physical chakra enhanced the body. As the baby grows, this impassive 'ability' may decrease in its potency or even cease to exist within them. For example, the spiritual chakra that is absorbed would be the current emotions of the person or the physical chakra that is absorbed would only be a little energy boost. The person being touched would only feel as though they hadn't gotten enough sleep, but not enough to really impair them. The person will also not realise that the child will be able to feel their emotions, as it doesn't get absorbed. It is merely an extension of emotion to the child that will fade immediately the moment contact is broken.

If the person is currently feeling angry and annoyed at a person whom they care for, the negative emotions will be carried over since it is the most prominent emotion the person is currently feeling. The stronger and more intense, it becomes less likely that the child will feel the positive emotions.

However, some children will have this 'ability' grow in potency, allowing them to properly absorb regular chakra from another and add it into their own reserves. This would kill the person they are touching should the child take all the chakra. It is required that these children seek treatment at the hospital in favour of safety. They can be taught to turn the ability off at will. Also, it is possible to be able to absorb chakra through clothes or armour should their ability grow stronger.

Children with this condition are generally more intelligent and stronger than most around their age group. Clans are often sources of offspring with this condition, an example is the co-founder of Konohagakure and former head of the Uchiha clan; Uchiha Madara. This may be because of their DNA and/or unique kekkei genkai.

With her condition diagnosed, Saki felt satisfaction in knowing that she wasn't the only one who had this condition. She didn't think there was a need for her to seek treatment, as she seemed to be one of the less potent 'ability users'. Still, it was in her best interest to remain all clothed up and have minimal contact with people.

The invasions of emotions were highly uncomfortable. They weren't hers and so it was hard for her to even begin to properly understand them. She didn't want to know, didn't want to acknowledge that a small part of her had still hoped that the emotions she had felt during that moment she had tried to touch her mother weren't real.

Except they were real, they were her mother's emotions and they were directed at her. It hurt, Saki realised. She didn't like how the emotional pain she was feeling was hers and she had no one to blame but herself. It was a weakness, because if she was hurt by this now then that meant that she could still be hurt in the future and that was something she didn't want. It was useless to try and keep these 'bonds' with her mother, someone who didn't care for her in any way. So Saki decided that she would try to lock her emotions away, so she wouldn't hurt anymore.

Mothers were meant to love and care for their children unconditionally, but Saki knew that sometimes books could prove to be incorrect.

Bonds were something that tethered a person to another, they were something that allowed the other to hurt them. Friends had bonds, friends had mutual affection for one another. Friends hurt each other because of that affection. It would be best if Saki didn't make friends then, she thought. The people she would come to know, they would be 'associates'. Sakura and Kizashi were family, along with Aunt Megumi and Uncle Masaru. Everyone else, including her mother were now only her associates.

The young carminette nodded to herself at decision. Once, Saki had read that this was how children in bad environments tended to cope… except that she wasn't in a bad environment, so perhaps that merely meant that she was different in some way? Mebuki didn't physically hit her, treated Sakura right and she knew that her parents loved each other dearly despite their constant bickers. It was just that her mother didn't love her, which Saki accepted after ignoring that annoying pang in her chest. The woman still provided for her, washed her clothes, gave her food and shelter even if it was because she was forced to do so. Saki had her own nice room, filled with books and scrolls that she had received upon request.

That just meant that the eldest Haruno daughter was merely different in some way. That was fine.

* * *

It was half way through Sakura's first year at the academy that Saki had encountered a scene that she disliked on the streets of Konoha.

A small boy with bright blonde hair was standing in front of a shop, his fists clenched and his head lowered as the poor thing seemed to be on the verge of crying. The young Haruno deduced that his pitiful state was the fault of the shop owner as it seemed that the boy had tried to enter the place when he was not welcome.

Jade eyes darkened with contempt at the situation. Bullying was beneath her, especially when a grown adult whom she expected to know better than to do such an act, bullied a truly defenceless child.

Yes, even if the rumours were spread about how that very child was the demon that killed so many including the Yondaime Hokage, she knew better than to treat people based on rumours.

Resolutely, Saki had quietly reached the scene to the point that she was standing right beside the blonde boy, surprising all around her including the child himself. His head snapped up, allowing the carminette to take in the sky-coloured gems that were glistening with surprise and tears. It was then that Saki remembered that this was her little sister's best friend.

The owner gasped. "Girl, what are you doing?! Don't get so close to that vile creature! He's-" he was abruptly cut off when the girl merely raised a hand to silence him, her eyes narrowed slightly as she unwaveringly made eye contact with him.

"What did he want to buy?" she asked, tone remaining dull as the boy she was referring to had begun to gape at her.

The man frowned at her, glancing back to look at his shop before turning to face her once again. "What does it matter?" he huffed, waving a hand dismissively, "I'm not going to sell him anything."

Saki blinked, unnerving the owner in front of her. "Money is money." she simply replied, bemusing the people around her. "It doesn't matter who has it, as long as they're willing to buy a product of yours which is profitable in your case. I see no reason as to why you would violently reject this boy, if he has the proper amount of money to buy whatever it is that he desires." she elaborated, glancing at the blonde child. "Do you have the money?"

Nodding, he hastily reached into his pockets to pull out a bunch of crumpled ryō just as the carminette's eyes returned to the owner. "I have no wish to waste any more time on this dilemma and I assume neither do you, so if you would be so kind as to allow the boy to buy what he wants, we can all move on with our day. Yes?" Saki stated, her gaze having returned to their usual blankness as she felt assured that she had the owner convinced.

The adult sighed tiredly as he realised that it would be immature to argue against her surprisingly sensible words. "Fine, since you make a valid point. Demon child, hurry up and get what you want before I change my mind." he grumbled, stepping into his store.

Since Naruto, as Saki remembered his name to be, was still currently processing the fact that he was allowed into the shop, she placed a hand on his back and pushed him forward. He stumbled through the entrance, whipping his head to look back at the peculiar girl.

"Best not waste any more time, so hurry up and buy what you want." Saki said to the best friend of her sister, her eyes barely registering the fact that the crowd around them were dispersing.

"A-ah! Okay! Thanks, nee-chan!" Naruto exclaimed, running further into the store to grab what it was that he wanted. His small form stopped in front of a section where there were various animal wallets staring at him with wide, blank eyes. He seemed to only have eyes for the toad-shaped wallet, which was situated near the back. After grabbing it, he ran to the counter where the owner waited impatiently. "I want this!" he announced loudly.

With his lips turned down in a frown, the man accepted the money before making a shooing gesture with his hand. "Now get out, you're lucky that girl was kind enough to convince me, demon."

The five-year-old was unperturbed by the title as he made his way outside, to find the girl that was nice enough to help him. Unfortunately, it seemed that she was long gone, no sign of her carmine hair or long scarf.

Naruto looked down at his new toad wallet with a big smile and eyes that were glistening with unshed, happy tears. _'I feel like I've seen her before,' _he thought, _'actually, she looks a lot like Sakura-chan. Maybe they're sisters, because they're both really nice.' _Naruto wiped his eyes and began to make his way to Ichiraku Ramen, intent on keeping his good mood with some good (unhealthy) food.

Meanwhile, Saki had already reached her destination of the Konoha library. It had many books on advanced medical theories and whatnot, things that she was definitely interested in. There was also self-help books about social interaction, which she only read if only because she was bored. Psychology books were more helpful in her thoughts, though.

The librarian knew her to the point that the woman would great her happily which was unlike her usual crabbiness, something to do with the fact that youths were rarely interested in books and the like.

Saki liked to hire out the books that centred around humans in some way, as it was her passion. Senju Tsunade also had various books about her person, which the carminette found to be interesting. She was reputed as the world's greatest kunoichi and medical-nin, which was the reason why Saki was irritated with the fact that the woman had left Konohagakure years ago.

For now, her reason for visiting the library was to extend her knowledge of poisonous plants and poisons in general that were native to Hi no Kuni. She felt that it was time to further build her tolerance to poisons, as starting young would help her in the long run of things. It would take time, and being a child who was still in training, Saki felt that this was the best time. She would make time to learn more about other poisons outside of Hi no Kuni, but that would be later. Saki wasn't sure if Kizashi would be willing to get her poisons during his missions outside their home land yet.

After hiring out more than a few books and placing them in the various bags she had brought with her (since she was well accustomed to her own habits of taking more books than she could carry with her own two hands), she left the library with a satisfied air around her. It seemed that she had lost track of time, as the sky was imbued with oranges and pinks to signify that the day was ending soon. The colours reminded her of Naruto and Sakura, who she knew got along very well.

Saki found that she was proud of her little sister. The younger Haruno girl had managed to befriend the one child that everyone seemed to hate, had managed to become his best friend and ally. Saki herself had never truly met the boy until today, only seeing him around sometimes. Sakura would often talk about him to the rest of her family, but Saki had made sure that the girl wouldn't speak of his name for fear of Mebuki freaking out over the idea of her youngest associating with the so-called demon child.

Before the carminette could think more on her mother, her ears twitched as she overheard the conversation between two housewives that were standing in the street.

"Honestly, another one of the Uchiha elders fell ill and passed away last week! That's three in the past two years, I'm amazed that even us commoners were able to hear of it." the woman with the dirty-blonde hair gossiped to the other.

Her friend, the brunette, waved her hand dismissively. "They're old and I doubt the Uchiha clan really care about us hearing if the wrinkly dudes died or not. We'd hear sooner or later, just like how they're all going to die. Sooner rather than later, apparently." she replied callously, uncaring of the clan elders.

The other woman sighed. "I suppose, but it's like some kind of domino effect, you know? One had a heart attack two years ago and nine months later, another died in his sleep. Now, just last week, another elder died of a terrible illness. Their clan must be tired of mourning for them."

Still remaining impassive, the brunette woman shrugged. "They have lots of members, they could pick some new elders or whatever since the current ones are all bound to die soon. I wouldn't be surprised if all the elders died in the next five years or so since there's like only four left of them, I think."

Saki blinked when their conversation switched to something much more boring in comparison, so the young girl had decided she continued on her way. The Uchiha clan were strong, but she knew that they seemed to have problems with the way things were now. It was in the way they looked around when going on patrols, like they were being oppressed and their only allies were each other. It wasn't much of a surprise that she could read their body language, since it seemed they were more focused on keeping their facial expression blank rather than focusing on all of themselves.

Her mind went to Uchiha Madara, whom she remembered had the same condition as her, only stronger. It was mildly empowering to know that she shared the condition with one of the founders of Konohagakure, the former leader of the Uchiha clan; that the condition was something that was more likely to occur in clans. Saki wondered if Neji would like it if she told him of that, as well as the fact that she was from a samurai clan. Probably not, she decided.

Silently, Saki walked a little faster down the street.

* * *

Sakura had taken the seat that had remained empty for the better half of the first few weeks, until the young Haruno decided that being targeted by her female peers was worth sitting next to her best friend and the popular Uchiha Sasuke.

At first she was worried, but Naruto had managed to bring her courage up and handle whatever befell on her. In any case, Sakura had mostly ignored Sasuke since she felt he didn't want to be bothered most of the time and she respected that. So her interactions were mostly with Naruto.

At the current moment in time, she was reading a book about the legendary Sannin whilst Naruto played with his new toad wallet, Sasuke writing something down that she didn't bother to look at.

Sakura wasn't usually early since both she and Saki would wake up early in the morning to go through their daily routine that their father had set out for them. It would last long enough that by the time they were both done and showed up at the academy, it was only a few minutes before the classes would start. But today she was early, since it was the week where her sister and herself were to take a week's break so they wouldn't wear themselves out.

Naruto would show up early just so he could spend more time with her, since he would often be late from doing pranks and whatnot on other students from his class and whoever else. Feeling a little guilty for not paying more attention to him, Sakura closed her book after marking the page and placed it gently on the desk, turning her shamrock eyes onto the blonde.

"Hey, Naruto-kun," she started, finally noticing the toad within his hands, "when did you get that?" she asked curiously.

The Uzumaki boy turned to her with a bright smile. "I got this yesterday! At first, I wasn't allowed in the shop but then this girl with a long blue scarf came and convinced the guy to let me in and buy it!" he recounted. "I named him Gama-chan! I wanted to speak to her more but she was gone by the time I got him, but I wanted to ask if she was your sister or something! She kind of looked like you."

Sakura's eyes widened in surprise. "It must've been nee-chan! She wears this blue scarf all the time so it must be her!"

Naruto grinned widely. "I knew it! She used a lot of words I didn't get and she was kind of scary since her face stayed the same the entire time, but she's really kind and cool like you!" he exclaimed happily.

The pinkette nodded fervently. "Yeah, she is! She must've seen you being bullied, because nee-chan hates bullying and she goes out of her way to stop it if she can. I talk to her about you a lot, so I wouldn't be surprised if she recognised you as well." she explained with a smile and a light in her eyes.

Sky blue eyes blinked rapidly in surprise, before a pink tinge formed on childish cheeks. "Y-yeah? W-what do you say?" he stuttered, rubbing the back of his neck and shifting his eyes from the desk to Sakura's book.

The Haruno girl looked up to the ceiling, recalling some of her words. "Well, I say stuff like how you're usually bullied for no reason and how people try to bully me because I hang out with you; how you're always the brightest person in the room and I really like your smile because it makes me smile." she turned her head to look at him, a smile upon her lips. "How you're really kind and how much I really love being your friend, Naruto-kun."

Naruto sniffed, rubbing at his nose and then at his eyes as there seemed to be some moisture there. "Gee, Sakura-chan… I really love being your friend too! I'll… I'll make sure to protect you from all the bullies that try to hurt me by hurting you, 'ttebayo!" he exclaimed loudly, rising up from his seat to point at all his loitering classmates. "You hear that?! I'll beat up anyone that tries to hurt Sakura-chan, 'ttebayo!"

The boy received an abundance of varied reactions, to which prompted lots of loud exchanges and stuff being thrown. Sakura sighed, but still kept her smile. She nearly missed the strange look that her dark-themed deskmate was giving her.

"Something wrong, Uchiha-san?" she asked politely, picking up her nearly forgotten book and staring at the cover.

"He's loud and annoying," the Uchiha replied quietly, turning his gaze back onto his own book, "why do you hang out with him?"

Sakura blinked, removing her eyes from her book to look at the popular boy. "Because he's my friend," she answered, tilting her head as she blinked at him curiously, "friends hang out and support each other. It doesn't matter if being with him causes people to try and bully me, because I know I can handle it." she smiled at Sasuke when he looked at her once more. "I know we don't speak much, Uchiha-san, but thanks for letting me sit here. I thought you wouldn't appreciate anyone sitting here at first."

Onyx eyes blinked at her. "Aa… it's fine." he said softly, then looked away.

Small hands opened the book back up to where Sakura had gotten up to. _'I'm okay with things, even if people try to hurt me, I'll be okay because I have such great people to support me.' _Sakura smiled at her thoughts, glancing at her blonde friend who seemed to enjoy arguing with the Inuzuka boy.

* * *

Saki half-listened to Naoki recount his experiences with the children of the orphanage that he lived with, humming softly in acknowledgement every once and a while as she stared past him and out the window behind him.

She did genuinely find Naoki interesting and listening to his point of views on his environment was intriguing. He was a sociopath in the making after all, and she couldn't help but find that the fact that he was her associate was somewhat a lucky experience. It allowed her to further study him.

Idly, the carminette wondered if he would've turned out differently if his parents were alive. Probably not, she guessed, since sociopaths were usually born that way according to a few books. Or was it psychopaths? They were rather similar, but were two different things. Would changing his environment change him a little?

Jade eyes glanced over to her dark-haired associate, who was listening intently with a frown. Takahiro only had his father and uncle, who weren't only taijutsu nuts, but weaponsmiths as well. His mother had left, one way or another and she was never spoken of so Saki assumed that the woman must've left before Takahiro could even know what her hair colour was. Maybe if she had stayed, she would've loved him as a mother should?

A mental sigh resounded within Saki's mind. Again with the mother issue, she just wished it would go away. She was done with it, it was pointless to continue thinking over it. Of course, if she perhaps had someone to become an outlet for her in a way, she'd be able to cope better, but there was no way she was going to try and talk to her two classmates about it.

Naoki might see it as a weakness, something that he could probably use later if a situation for it occurred. Takahiro wouldn't be able to understand at all, because he didn't have a mother around and he would simply try to reassure her that her mother did love her, because he was a kind person like that. Saki didn't want to hear that nonsense.

With a small sigh leaving her lips, she pulled out her genjutsu theory homework whilst still listening to her to blue-haired associate's words. This homework was something interesting to take her mind off her pointless worries. After all, this was what her father specialised in, what she and Sakura had a natural inclination towards. She was sure that medical ninjutsu and genjutsu were going to main components of her fighting style in the future, so she would have to practise.

Perhaps she would need to catch some small animals later so she could work on improving her skills with them. She'll have to get a shoebox or something later to put them in, maybe a mouse would do.

* * *

"Tadaima!" Sakura voiced happily as she and her sister walked through the entrance before they both removed their shoes and walked further into the house.

"Okaeri." Mebuki replied with a smile, turning around after putting plates down on the dinner table to see her two daughters by the foyer. Her eyes narrowed in on the sight of her eldest covered in patches of dirt with a simple shoebox in her gloved hands. As her eyes reached to meet unreadable jades, they narrowed a little bit more as she couldn't remember the day there was something in the carminette's eyes.

Her attention quickly shifted onto her bubblegum-haired daughter, who came at her with a big smile and open arms. Immediately, her green depths softened at her youngest as she returned the loving hug.

Saki blinked, taking in the quick transition of emotion her mother displayed after focusing on Sakura. The elder child's face remained the same, perhaps it turned a little too blank, but she knew that the only person that would notice wasn't home yet. She turned to the stairs and silently went upstairs without a word, without a facial expression or nod in acknowledgment.

Mebuki, for the umpteenth time, sighed in exasperation due to her daughter's behaviour. "She never says hello, never asks how I am and never tells me about her day." she muttered under her breath, glancing at her youngest flitter into the kitchen to see what was for dinner.

She watched as the small child's face lit up with delight, "We're having meat!" she cheered, raising a fist in triumph which caused the blonde woman to chuckle before she resumed her preparations.

"It's been a while since your father's been home, and he's coming back tonight so we're going to surprise him with a good dinner." the Haruno woman explained, a small smile on her lips at the thought of her beloved returning after so long. It wouldn't be too long before her own children would make her go through the same kind of loneliness, she thought, the smile on her lips faltering.

"That's great!" Sakura commented brightly, making her way to the fridge to grab a drink. "Hey, kaa-chan, would I be able to bring my friend over tomorrow?" she asked innocently, rummaging through the shelves.

"That one you're always talking about?"

"Yeah," her daughter replied and for just a moment, she forgot about her sister's warning, "Naruto-kun's been asking to-" and then she remembered with a gasp, but it was too late.

Shocked, Mebuki was staring wide-eyed at the little pinkette, trying to process the name that she had just spoken. "You-… your friend is… Uzumaki Naruto?" she asked, disbelievingly, hoping to all things good out there that it wasn't true.

Sakura fidgeted uncomfortably. "Yeah… but he's not as everyone says he is!" she proclaimed firmly, looking up at her mother with eyes filled with determination to show her mother that Naruto wasn't a demon.

The Haruno woman stepped back, her spine lightly hitting the counter and she used it to support herself, trying to grasp the situation as she placed a hand to her forehead. "You've been friends with him for half the year already… I wondered why you never said his name… why, Sakura, would you be friends with him? Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Mebuki asked softly, controlling her protective instincts to demand that her daughter never go near the demon-child ever again for her own safety.

Seeing that she wasn't outright yelling, Sakura felt that this was going a lot better than how she pictured it; so feeling encouraged, she spilled the beans. "Nee-chan said that I shouldn't say his name, because she said that you'd get angry-" but before she could go any further, she was interrupted.

"Of course it's your sister," her mother spat, a deep frown on her face, "of course she would know and would let you, even encourage you to be friends with the demon-child that attacked the village five years ago."

Abruptly, before Sakura could say anything, the woman pushed off the counter and stomped to the bottom of the stairs, glaring at the top and placing her hands on her hips.

"Saki!" she called angrily. "Get yourself down here right now!"

The pinkette was at a loss for words. What happened? What went wrong? Was her sister now in trouble because of her?

"Kaa-chan, please-" Sakura began to plead, hoping to explain herself and calm her mother down, but it was no use.

Mebuki shook her head as she raised her hand in a gesture to silence her daughter. "Please, Sakura stay quiet! Your sister has done nothing but fill nonsense into your head, and your father is at fault too for encouraging that nonsense!" the furious woman shouted, her angry gaze shifting to the small girl at the top of the stairs. "Saki! I've had enough of you putting rubbish in your little sister's head, endangering her in the process! Get down here!"

Saki remained at the top of the stairs, blinking blankly down at the infuriated woman as she absent-mindedly dried her hair with the towel in her hands. Then, there was a small twitch in her fingers as she thought on the words that were shouted at her. So the woman figured out who Sakura's friend was, she deduced.

"Sakura made her own choice to become a ninja… to befriend Uzumaki Naruto. She is able to see the boy for who he truly is, able to be happy with her choices. You should be happy that she's happy, right?" Saki stated monotonously, only becoming less so when she voiced her question. It was a slight slip up, but she hoped that Mebuki wouldn't be able to notice it in her fury.

"She's five!" Mebuki yelled, pointing at the very girl whom they were referring to as if that explained everything.

The eldest Haruno daughter's eyelids lowered only slightly, subtly indicating how poorly she thought of that excuse. "I'm six." she retorted softly. "You seem to believe that I'm independent enough to think through my own choices, so why not hold the same belief for Sakura?"

"Your sister is different, she's not like you!" the woman exclaimed in frustration as her glare on her carmine-haired daughter became more intense. "She's easily influenced and that can put her in danger if you tell her that it's okay to consort with the demon that nearly destroyed Konoha!"

Mebuki abruptly blinked in confusion as she realised that Saki was prominently making a disapproving expression, her jades finally showing something… something that was directed to her in a glare.

"What's the difference, kaa-san?" Saki asked with a volume so soft that her mother couldn't have heard it. "You're supposed to support your daughter's choices, you're supposed to trust that she's making the right decision to become friends with Uzumaki Naruto." she stated after, loud enough for the woman at the bottom of the stairs to hear. There was something hard in her previously indifferent tone, something that spoke of subtle accusation that threw the Haruno woman off.

Without another word, Saki walked out of sight where Mebuki could only hear the sound of a door shutting. Sakura ran past the silent woman and hurriedly up the stairs to her sister's room.

Now that she was alone, Mebuki found that her anger was quickly escaping her and all that was left was fatigue. She slowly shuffled into the dining room, pulling out one of the chairs and practically dropping on it. Forcing out a deep sigh, she leaned her forward against her joined hands that were propped up by the elbow on the table.

Perhaps what she said was out of place. How could it really be Saki's fault when she herself was only a child? Sometimes, Mebuki often forgot that she was still just that; a child. It was so hard, when the girl didn't behave like one, when she would be unintentionally creepy with her blank stares and emotionless voice. She was too intelligent that it made her seem like an adult trapped in a child's body.

The blonde knew that the circumstances of her intelligence was due to an anomaly within her pregnancy, the doctors had informed her of that much. Sometimes, she wondered if it would've been better if Saki wasn't like that, like a normal child that acted just like Sakura.

She needed to apologise, it wasn't her daughters' fault that they were just following their hearts. It only took a minute for her to be standing in front of Saki's door, but it took longer for her to actually knock.

A few moments after she knocked, the door opened to reveal Saki's face, her expression back to its neutral state. She waited silently for the woman to speak.

"Saki…" Mebuki started, eyes softening as she looked at her child, "I'm so sorry." she knew her words to be true.

There was silence among them, as Saki's eyes had widened in shock at the sight of this woman's eyes softening, at the genuine-sounding apology. For a moment and only a moment, the carminette thought that she meant it. Until she realised that it was all a lie to appeal to Sakura, yes, she understood.

It settled in and she replied, "I accept your apology."

Like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, Mebuki relaxed a little and stepped forward in an awkward attempt to hug her eldest, only for it to be countered unknowingly by Saki stepping back in the guise of opening the door even more so Sakura could be seen, sitting at the kotatsu with a sniffle and wet cheeks.

Saki looked on as Mebuki quickly rushed over to the pitiful sight of her youngest daughter, hugging her closely and reassuring her of her friendship with the boy and whatnot. There was a painful sensation in her chest, something that she tried to ignore. The girl blinked as she realised that her grip was nearly destroying the door knob and she abruptly let go, a subtly bemused frown forming as she chided herself for the strange lack of control her hand revealed.

Her gaze shifted to the window, intent on ignoring her own idiocy. "It's getting late, kaa-san. Perhaps you should return to preparing to make dinner." she advised, taking in the orange hues of the sky.

Mebuki's head snapped up, just realising that yes, she probably should. "Ah! Right! Your father should be coming home soon!" she commented, hurriedly standing up and running out the door.

Silently, Saki closed the door and stared at it for a few moments before she heard a small sniffle from her little sister. She turned around, to find that Sakura was smiling at her.

"See, aneki? Kaa-chan loves you too."

The elder Haruno wanted to snort and defuse such foolish thoughts immediately, but she let it go, humming in neither confirmation nor denial. Saki knew that this was merely just another event to support the fact that Mebuki truly loved Sakura and that she herself would never receive that love. The woman was smart, so she knew that it would displease Sakura if she didn't apologise to the sister that she loves.

That was fine, Saki repeated in her head. That was perfectly acceptable, but for some reason she had the horrid urge to cry. Perhaps it would be preferable if she worked on building up her poison tolerance soon.

* * *

**A/N: **Reviews are love. Reviews are life. It's never ogre. Thanks to my beta; Coq-on-Face the Third.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Chapter three; REVISED. Enjoy.

* * *

Sakura and Naruto were understandably surprised when their deskmate approached them on the last day of their first year at the academy, his childish face contorted into a frown as his cheeks were tinted with light pink.

"I, uh… " he started awkwardly, doing his best to fight the urge to fidget under the scrutiny of his two classmates. He tried again after a deep breath, "I want to be friends…" there was a mild cringe in his expression, most likely because he never thought that he would utter the words. It was too soft though, so only the pink-haired girl heard him.

The blonde of the two squinted his eyes and leaned forward. "Huh? What was that?" he asked curiously, tilting his head and cupping his ear in an unsubtle gesture that he couldn't hear. Unfortunately, the young Uchiha seemed to think the tactless boy was antagonising him.

"Never mind!" he huffed indignantly, preparing himself to turn and stomp away before a hand grabbed his wrist. His eyes locked onto the hand before tracing it back to its owner until onyx met shamrock.

An easy smile upon her lips. "We'd be happy to have you as our friend." she said, turning to her blonde friend. "Right, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto frowned as he scrutinised the dark-haired Uchiha after realising friendship was what he wanted. Sasuke felt uncomfortable and was ready to bring up his defences in case the other boy wanted to start something, but then that big, disarming grin made him stop. "Yeah, that's cool!" he loudly voiced his approval, giving a thumbs up. "You're kind of a show-off and I don't like the way the girls tried to hurt Sakura because of you, but that's okay! We'll be invincible once we're all best buddies!"

Pink cheeks darkened with annoyance and shame at the blonde words, "Y-you're the show-off and it's not like I liked it when they tried to hurt her, you… you usuratonkachi!" he exclaimed defensively, sporting a new glare upon his supposedly new friend. It wasn't like he could call the Uzumaki a 'dobe', since he in fact, wasn't the dead last of the class according to their end-of-the-year results.

Then he remembered that someone still had his wrist in their hand when he was forcefully pulled back and away from Naruto, causing him to stumble and nearly fall into the strangely strong girl.

When he looked up to meet her face and tell her to let him go now, he froze upon recognising that outwardly pleasant smile that his mother often sported when his father did or said something disagreeable. Outwardly pleasant he remembered, but its true meaning was that the owner of that smile was displeased and would bestow upon you… only pain.

"Naruto-kun," Sakura called out to her friend with a tone that matched her smile, said friend shutting his mouth before he could spew out 'teme' and looking to her curiously, "Sasuke-kun." when she said the Uchiha's name, he was surprised to find that it didn't send shivers down his spine like it would whenever one of his female classmates cooed at him. She, that Hyuuga girl and the quiet brown-haired girl that sat in front of him were the only females that referred to him by his last name and he usually relished in the lack of shivers.

He was brought out of his thoughts when the pinkette spoke up again. "I can tell that our newfound friendship will include lots of nonsensical bickers between the two of you and I know it'll only bring you two close together in the future, but for now… please don't until start until after we celebrate our friendship. Okay?" she stated with a brighter smile and released the raven-haired boy in order to bring her hands together.

Sasuke blinked. He knew that Haruno Sakura was an intelligent girl, after all he sat next to her and he also knew that she was the 'top kunoichi' at the moment… but he had the strangest thought that she reminded him a lot of his mother; they were both smiles and pleasantry but there was something scary about them too.

The Uchiha nodded, seeing underneath the underneath. He wasn't really expecting the class outcast to understand her subtle threat, but he too nodded albeit with a nervous smile and an uncomfortable rubbing of the back of the neck. Guess he wasn't entirely idiotic.

Naruto's nervous demeanour shifted abruptly when he whirled his attention towards Sasuke, glaring and pointing dramatically. "After we celebrate, casanova, you better be prepared for a storm of insults, you got that?!" he announced.

The ravenhead grimaced. "Did you just call me a casanova? How the hell do you even know what that means?" the only reason Sasuke himself knew was because his own brother had been accused of being such by some crazy woman that was much older than both of them after she was politely rejected by the Uchiha heir. It was terrifying.

A large and somewhat proud-looking grin took place on the Uzumaki's face as he placed his hands behind his head. "Saki-nee tutors me with Sakura-chan sometimes! She's Sakura-chan's nee-chan and she said that she could be mine too if I wanted, so she's my nee-chan too!"

Onyx shifted to land on the youngest of the Haruno siblings, who had a genuine smile at the mention of her sister. "Speaking of her," she started, making eye contact with him, "you don't mind if we wait for her to finish classes? I don't want to suddenly run off without her knowing."

"Hn," Sasuke grunted, consciously resuming the same 'cool' demeanour he usually had around their classmates, "my, uh, nii-chan is coming to pick me up since we didn't know they would cut classes short today… maybe your nee-chan and him can meet each other." he commented quietly, following the pink-haired girl as she made her way over to the shade that the large tree in the middle of the courtyard provided.

Once all three had sat in a triangle, the Uchiha was uncomfortably being stared at by two pairs of brightly coloured eyes.

"So hey, Sasuke," Naruto spoke up after a moment, earning himself the attention of both of his friends, "why'd you want to be friends with us of all people?"

Sasuke grimaced as an irritating blush formed on his face again. He'd weakly hoped they wouldn't ask, but it was hopeless. "I… my kaa-san said I needed to make more friends because she wanted to see more children around the compound… but I don't like many of my classmates, so…" what an intriguing shade of green, Sasuke thought idly as he stared at the grass. The shade of shamrock suddenly popped up in his mind and he blinked.

"So you chose us," Sakura surmised with a nod, drawing the raven-haired boy's attention, "you know me well enough and many of our class still don't like going near Naruto-kun so you won't be surrounded by rabid females," her eyes lost a little of her brightness at the thought, "we're the best choice."

"Sounds like he's a momma's boy." Naruto muttered with a small grin as he plucked at the grass.

The Uchiha glared at the Uzumaki. "The girls fawn over me simply because I'm 'cool and cute' or whatever and because I'm an Uchiha… the boys accept me simply because I'm an Uchiha then they talk crap when they think I'm not around… I don't want friends that can't see past my last name." he explained quietly, shifting his glare onto an innocent leaf that found its way to the back of his hand.

"I don't get it, wouldn't you hate being treated like I do because you hang out with me?" Naruto frowned, in the process of deep thinking.

Sasuke stared contemplatively at the blonde. "I really doubt that they have the guts to treat me like that, but I've always wondered why they go out of their way to avoid you." he wondered. Sure, he was loud and annoying, but he didn't really try to hurt anyone and there were times when his pranks were rather ingenious. He didn't really deserve to be treated like he had murdered someone's entire family and his classmates were smart enough to realise that too, but they still stayed away like something bad would happen if they treated him like a human being.

Onyx shifted to land on the young Haruno. Sakura had established that she would take no one's crap and that had earned her the respect to be relatively left alone, even if there were the cases when the girls would angrily insult her amongst each other due to her seating arrangement or her association to the blonde. Yet she was also kind in a way that surprised him, because she would help out the same girls with some of their school work without asking anything in return; it took a while, but some of their peers had learned that Sakura didn't really deserve the treatment she had gotten simply because of who she associated with and who she sat next to and for some reason, they found it easier to remove their prejudice from her than Naruto. She could follow along with what the guys were saying about techniques and add in her own thoughts and there was a strength in not only her mental ability, but her physical ability as well.

He realised that it didn't take long for Sakura herself to become popular because of her personality, it wasn't just her exotic looks or her shinobi abilities. Sasuke liked to people watch, to observe his surroundings as his clan had put it. They enjoyed interacting with her, but she was like a gem that could only come into their hands randomly and temporarily because it was in the permanent possession of something they avoided. Naruto was like an unintentional guard, so that may have been the reason Sakura never realised just how well-liked she was, Sasuke thought.

Then the young Uchiha frowned as he just then figured out how much attention he'd been paying her over the past year. He didn't mean to, she sat next to him so it was inevitable that he would take notice of her. He liked the way she treated him like a normal person, even if his Uchiha training told him that he was superior to a normal person, it felt nice. The same went with Naruto.

Even if they didn't really interact all that much and it generally brought on insults, it felt nice to have someone who resembled a rival in a way.

That may have been the real reason he wanted to become their friends. He wanted to hang onto those nice feelings… and maybe, he'd be able to learn more about the meaning of friendship that his mother kept raving on about. They accepted him easily and for that, he was grateful.

* * *

A grimace formed on Saki's features as a small foot connected painfully with her chest, sending her a few feet back and causing her to land roughly on the ground. The sunlight made her squint she breathed heavily, trying to deal with the pain erupting in her chest and a few other places.

A shadow soon loomed over her, a relatively plain face with tanned skin and matching brown hair and eyes entering her vision.

"Are you okay, Saki-chan?" they asked, and she had to blink to remember his name was Daiki as he held out a hand. "I'm really sorry, I accidentally used too much force since I'm used to training with chuunin-level shinobi," he explained sheepishly as he helped her up and gave a small chuckle, "you're really fast, so it reminded me of them and well…" he became silent as he held her shoulders and leaned against him in order to recover.

"I'll be fine…" the Haruno breathed quietly, the grimace on her dirt-marred face increasing in intensity as she stared at nothing in particular. As she shifted and her body ached, her eyes widened in alarm when concern and affection invaded her mind and so she quickly pulled her face away so that their cheeks no longer touched. Her blank, neutral expression fell over her face as she attempted to feign indifference when she met his eyes. "Thank you for the spar, Daiki-san. Have a good holiday." she said, stepping back and away from his touch.

He smiled, "You too, Saki-chan. Sorry again."

Saki's chest and right arm ached as she made it back into the classroom where all the others who had finished their spars had congregated to. Daiki was a nice enough classmate of hers, strangely affectionate towards her for reasons she couldn't fathom, but that didn't stop him from doing well to cause her pain. He was to be the third generation ninja of his family, she remembered he told her during one of their team building exercises. It didn't surprise her that he beat her, really.

Though her genes of first generation ninja and unknown generation would-be samurai had allowed her to endure some attacks, she still needed to train her body. Even if her father had helped her immensely in her personal training, she knew that taijutsu wasn't going to be an entirely large part of her style aside from being able to be capable and efficient. It was bad enough that her body was still adjusting to her building on her poison tolerance so now she had bruised ribs and a sore ulna. Genjutsu seemed to be the thing she was progressing well in, from being able to notice and dispel genjutsu placed upon her by her father, as well as improve on employing them. It seemed discouraging when trying to place a genjutsu on a genjutsu specialist who didn't even need to blink to dispel it, but Kizashi had encouraged that that she would be able to ensnare a low chuunin at the very least, for a small moment. A small moment was all it took, Saki thought.

She sighed mentally at the future days of further conditioning her body, she needed to be better if she wanted to acquire more knowledge of life and its treasures. Luckily, Saki knew which medicinal herbs to use to speed her healing process and had progressed her medical ninjutsu to heal deeper bruises and cuts. Bones were definitely something she couldn't attempt yet, for lack of skill and chakra reserves.

The academy's third year would be increasingly more difficult as it would be a year round test to see who was worthy of taking the crash course where their fourth year would be spent learning everything a student would in the academy. The higher ups would then allow the students chosen to graduate early and become a genin that chooses various programs to hone their skills until their peers graduate from the academy at age twelve. They would then be placed in genin teams to promote bonds, teamwork and more efficiency when it comes to missions.

The academy's curriculum wasn't as slack as it used to be when it was war times. Instead, thanks to that, they decided it was time to really teach their students about being a shinobi, about the skills you needed to be a good one. They had practical lessons when it came to genjutsu and ninjutsu rather than just taijutsu as well as the theory; made various simulations and put different students together to work on teamwork. Konohagakure was tired of young hopefuls dying too early in the battlefield.

Sometimes there would be field lessons, where they go into the mountains and work on survival, having to live a few weeks with their designated team in the wilderness whilst also fending off the 'enemy' which were just another team from the class.

Saki enjoyed the academy, it wasn't just chuunin who taught, but special jounin and full jounin too. Even genin would come in and take a turn in building educational skills. The ones who wouldn't take the crash course would be learning about killing the enemy and dealing with the emotions that come with it, simulations and genjutsu would be put into play to strengthen the children's resolve in protecting the village and completing the mission, even if it means murder.

The students who stayed at the academy would also be going through their own sort of courses as well as learning the general academy material, where they would be focusing on whatever it was they were good at, such as taijutsu, genjutsu or ninjutsu. It was likely that Takahiro would be remaining at the academy and would be focusing on his taijutsu, since he didn't really like the general paper work.

Another sigh left her lips as she thought about the new seating arrangement, where those who are more likely to take the crash course would be sitting in the column by the window, the ones that were either or in the middle, whilst the ones with the least chances would be at the end column.

Neji, she and Naoki were to be deskmates in their third year. It would bring all sorts of trouble, she thought. Takahiro would be sitting with a branch member from the Uchiha and an Inuzuka, so their little trio would be split up.

She wasn't sure how she felt about it and luckily for her, she didn't have to think about it because a small hand grasped the tail of her scarf gently, lifting and playing with it before letting it slip past their hand. Saki granted Naoki a brief glance as he slid into the seat with little distance between them, taking in the bruise at the corner of his upturned lips. "I want to come play at your house, Saki-chan. I get so bored without you." he murmured with a pleasant tone, lemon eyes gleaming with amusement as they stared unwaveringly at the carminette.

Saki turned in her seat to better face him, idly wondering why he thought her so amusing as she reached up to gently touch the bruise on his face. "I won't have time to play, Naoki, you know I have plans." she responded monotonously as her fingers began to glow with green chakra, her eyes trained intensely as the dark bit of skin began to return to its usual pale palette. "I'm assuming you didn't win your spar."

The blunet shrugged, "It was against Stickup-kun, but I got him in the mouth too so fair play." he replied, his smile widened the slightest as he seemed to study her face which had moved away after she finished healing his face and moved on to applying ointment to his knuckles. 'Stickup-kun' was short for 'Stick-up-his-ass-kun' which was what Naoki had dubbed the Hyuuga from the branch family, since they also had another Hyuuga from the main family whom had an antagonistic relationship with his family member. Saki admittedly liked the way his face became angrily pouty when Naoki called him that, but she wouldn't call him that herself. It was a futile effort to convince the blue-haired menace to stop his sociopathic ways, because he always wanted something that she wouldn't be able to give him.

The thought of her being a hypocrite appeared, but she rebutted it with the fact that humans were hypocrites by nature regardless of how much people wanted to argue otherwise. It wasn't until someone called them out on their hypocrisy that they would be labelled as such, but everyone was a hypocrite in some form or other. Besides, she thought, there was a limit as to how much bullying she could put a stop to. She wasn't all powerful.

"You're cute when you frown." Naoki abruptly complimented her, throwing her out of her thoughts she turned to see him with his head tilted innocently. Then he smiled, "Then again, you're always cute, Saki-chan."

Saki tilted her head at him, blinking as she stared at him with an unreadable look. "Thank you," she thanked him with her usual dead tone, sounding completely insincere without meaning to, "I didn't realise I was frowning. I'll make sure to pay more attention to my expression in the future."

Even when the sociopathic boy burst out with uncontrollable snickers, her expression remained blank as she looked at him with scrutinising eyes. "Oh, Saki… you don't mind if I call you that from now on, right?" he wiped the corner of his eye as he smiled slyly at her. "It makes me feel like we're much closer, I'd like to be closer you know? You always brighten my day."

She wanted to frown at him suspiciously, but made a conscious effort not to. It wasn't that she found the lack of an honorific all that bad, in fact she wondered why he only just now decided to do it, it was why he found her so amusing. Why did he equate her to something positive in his life? Just what was she to him? A pet? A toy? Perhaps it would be wise to research more about sociopaths if she was going to continue associating with him, she decided.

Saki mentally slotted that into her plans as she gathered her belongings, then made Takahiro come closer to her so she could heal his wounds despite his protests. Being in pain didn't make you manly, she thought.

* * *

When Sakura abruptly jumped up and sped past him, Sasuke only had a moment to realise that her sister had arrived and had to quickly stand up and face the elder Haruno. It was bad manners to be introduced whilst he was sitting on the ground and her standing. He only then noticed how close she was and was surprised as to how she could be so silent that he wouldn't notice when he was being trained by his clan.

The two Harunos interacting gave Sasuke enough time to properly look at Sakura's elder sister. He could definitely tell that they were related, but he had the idea that they held two completely different auras around them. Sakura had a bright and open air about her, and her features were soft and it wasn't hard to tell she was a civilian; whilst he noticed that her sister… Saki, had a more closed off and calculating air, like the members of his clan strangely enough. She even had more refined features like clan members did, a sort of aristocracy that usually only clan members like the Uchiha and Hyuuga had. It confused him, because she was Sakura's sister and Sakura was a civilian… so how was it that they seemed like they were from two different worlds?

He wasn't able to ponder further on it when her jade eyes locked onto him, making him tense as the unreadable depths further reminded him of his family. There was a feeling like he was being scrutinised and the Uchiha wasn't sure if it was okay to breathe.

"Sasuke-kun, this is Saki, my nee-chan." Sakura then spoke up, breaking through some of the tension the raven-haired boy was feeling and allowing him to let out a breath he didn't fully realise he was holding in. "Aneki, this is Sasuke-kun. He's my deskmate and he wanted to become friends today."

Sasuke bowed hastily, vaguely remembering his lessons whilst unintentionally stuttering out his words. "I-It's, uh, nice to meet you, Saki-senpai. Please take care of me!" there was a wince as he realised how nervous he seemed in front of the elder Haruno. It was hard to keep his composure for some reason, he felt nervous in her presence.

When he straightened up, he saw her nodding at him in acknowledgment with stoic face. Sasuke blinked when he noticed there was something softer in her blank expression than the expressions of his family, it allowed him to relax his shoulders slightly.

"It's nice to meet you too, Sasuke-san. I hope you three will take care of each other." she responded with such a monotone that Sasuke's eyes widened involuntarily. If she noticed his shock, she didn't acknowledge it as she shifted her attention to the blonde boy who excitedly bounced around her and told her of the nonsensical experiences that he had today.

She had to be some kind of illegitimate child of the Uchiha, Sasuke mentally declared! The features (minus the colour scheme), the expression, the tone of voice, the way she held herself! They were all similar to the Uchiha clan that she just had to be! Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he further scrutinised her, then shifted his gaze onto the younger Haruno. Did that mean that they were both illegitimate children of the Uchiha? Would that mean that Sakura was a distant family member?

For some reason, the prospect was displeasing for the young Uchiha.

Fortunately, the far-fetched nonsense Sasuke's mind was conjuring was thrown away as soon as the figure he recognised as his elder brother flickered into view. Like a jack rabbit, the younger of the two Uchihas had sprinted to his brother's side and tackled him, though he was kept upright as his brother was strong. "Aniki!" he greeted the elder boy with a giddy laugh. "Come meet my new friends!" then the Uchiha heir was taken by the hand to be introduced to his little brother's new companions. All lessons on Uchiha propriety had flown out the window for the smaller boy, it seemed.

Itachi had quirked a brow at his younger brother's excited demeanour as he was willingly led by the hand to the other children. He knew of their presence even before he had decided to make an appearance, but now he had the opportunity to examine the three children. The blonde boy he recognised since he had a reputation among the villagers, but he didn't know of the other two. They were siblings, he noted, as well as they seemed to have the white circle as a family symbol since both had it sewn into their clothes. Curious, he thought, it wasn't common for civilian families to bear family symbols.

The soon-to-be eleven-year-old made eye contact with the eldest of the three, before his eyes shifted to land on the younger ones whom he assumed were the friends Sasuke was on about.

"Sakura-chan, Usu-I mean, Naruto… this is my nii-chan." Sasuke introduced, stepping to the side a little as he awkwardly tried to play off his verbal mishap with a cough. His eyes shifted back and forth, hoping that his brother would approve of the two and vice versa.

The little pinkette smiled politely at the heir of the Uchiha clan and respectfully bowed, the Uzumaki frowning at her in confusion for a moment before he roughly mimicked her actions. "It's nice to meet you, Uchiha-san. Please take care of us." Sakura said as she straightened up and gestured to her sister who had remained silent during the exchange. "This is my nee-chan."

Then the elder Haruno and Uchiha turned to each other, once again making eye contact. Their eyes had narrowed slightly almost immediately, gone unnoticed by the other three but not by each other. It wasn't with hostility that their eyes narrowed, merely a mild concentration put in place as they regarded each other silently.

Itachi stared into the deep depths of jade as Saki returned the gesture by staring into a black sea of onyx. They were analysing each other whilst also having the knowledge of the other doing so, even though no words had been exchanged as of yet. Even though she still wasn't a ninja yet, she already had the beginnings of the grace good ninja tended to have because he could see the familiar analytical gaze within her eyes, a gaze they seemed to share. Then, he nodded in acknowledgment and it was returned in kind.

"Uchiha Itachi." he introduced himself quietly, voice smooth even though he was at the beginning stages of puberty. He blinked, noticing that he hadn't done so for a longer amount of time than he thought.

"Haruno Saki." she replied softly, her voice tone resembling his own. Her head tilted towards the bemused six-or-so-year-olds and blinked, he realised that she hadn't done so for a while then too. "They wish to celebrate their newfound friendship and I have no qualms with the prospect, however I believe it may have to be postponed to another day as I'm unable to supervise today." Saki stated eloquently. After all, her chest and arm still hurt and she wanted to assess the damage without revealing her skin in public, it felt highly uncomfortable for her to do so even if it was just her glove.

"I am also fine with the desire," Itachi replied, his voice and face giving away nothing of his thoughts, "however I must also agree that it will have to be postponed as my otouto has training lessons with our chichi-ue." he stated, reminding his brother of his other 'duties'. His eyes softened slightly at the clear disappointment painted on the little trio's faces.

"Well, we're on holidays so there's no rush." Sakura reassured the Uchiha with a smile, patting him on the back as his eyes stared dejectedly at the ground. "Just wait until then, okay?"

Sasuke looked at the pinkette, before nodding with a small smile. "Okay, then maybe in the next few days?" he suggested, glancing unsubtly to the Uchiha heir to check with him.

"I will ask chichi-ue to free up your schedule," Itachi nodded, allowing a miniscule smile form onto his lips as Sasuke's eyes brightened up, "haha-ue will also be willing to lend her support should he have any disagreements." after all, he thought, it was the matriarch of the Uchiha that pestered Sasuke to go find friends.

He chanced a glance at the carminette, who was affirming that yes, Naruto was allowed to sleep over again with the condition that he clean up after himself. Of course, Itachi's mother had also pestered him to find some friends aside from Shisui. Itachi had taken the crash course and graduated, then was allowed to enter the chuunin exams soon after as he was sorted into a new genin team that graduated at the normal time. That meant that the clan heir had already become a chuunin and so left the genin team before he could create any bonds, not that he thought he could with the way they weren't able to handle the fact that he was above their skill levels combined. The only reason he hadn't already made jounin was because of his mother's intense wish for him to have a semi-normal childhood. He blinked when her eyes lifted to meet his with an unwavering gaze, nodding his head only slightly to signify his farewell as Sasuke clung to his form. She returned the gesture once again.

"I'll see you later, Sakura-chan… Naruto." the young ravenhead said to his two new friends, an uncontrollable smile on his face as he couldn't contain the childish happiness.

"Bye, Sasuke-kun." Sakura waved after him as his form began to grow smaller.

"Later te-… Sasuke!" Naruto yelled with a grin and an overly enthusiastic wave.

Saki sighed discreetly, wanting to be home already and possibly take a nap after she digested her second dose of poison for the day. "Alright Naruto, we'll make a visit to your place to get your things then go home." she explained, already beginning to walk away from the academy as her classmates began to file out.

"Awesome, 'ttebayo!"

* * *

Saki was steadily getting used to the new treatment she'd been receiving from her birth giver. Ever since that whole fiasco half-a-year ago, Mebuki had seemed to turn over a new leaf by treating her eldest with a foreign kind of softness that Saki could recognise as motherly affection if only because she had seen it used on someone else. It was foreign because the carminette had become entirely used to the woman's usual ways with a lack of real affection or love.

Mebuki would speak to her nicer than she used to, give softer looks and treat her to more sweets as well as ask her how her day was. All things a normal mother would do with their child.

Saki wasn't fooled. She may have made it seem like she had been used to this kind of treatment for years, went along with the flow, per se. It was a façade, because the eldest Haruno daughter knew that it was all a fabricated lie. Mebuki was treating her like this to fool Sakura, to appease herself of her own guilt as well more likely. Sakura had been noticeably happier about the shift in dynamics, because it was all for her.

This woman did not love Saki.

This woman loved Sakura and so she was putting on a mask to make her happy.

Saki knew that it was all lies; those soft gazes, the small smiles, the little gestures and encouraging words.

They were all lies.

But the carminette didn't fret, she remained silent… compliant with the blonde's elaborate performance. She liked seeing Sakura happy as well, so she let it go and didn't call the Haruno woman out. Saki retained her usual behaviour, didn't smile when it would've been the polite thing to do, didn't respond when she didn't feel like it even though she left the conversation hanging. Mebuki didn't let that phase her, of course it wouldn't.

Mebuki was smart though, Saki had to admit. The woman had allowed Naruto into their house, had allowed herself to come to know him and accept him as he was. Sakura was ecstatic.

Naruto became part of the family, thanks to Mebuki's progress in seeing past the rumours. He would have dinner with the family and talk about how his day was, who he pranked that day and whatever it was that Saki taught him that he found interesting. The boy would help with the dishes and then go play with Sakura in her room or in the lounge, then they'd go to sleep. Saki had realised that the Haruno household was more like his home now since the only times the boy had really left to go back to his apartment was when he didn't realise he brought too little clothes. Mebuki had begun to treat him like a son she never had.

The carminette had admitted to herself that Naruto had become a part of_ her_ family. He had managed to worm his way into her little heart, accepting her own eccentric ways and taking in her advice and teachings like a sponge alongside Sakura. He was intelligent in his own way, sensitive to people's feelings in a way she wouldn't have figured he'd have upon first impressions. There were elaborate pranks that were surprisingly well-thought out as well as ones where he had asked for her help. She didn't give out her help for free, and so they worked out a sort of partnership where she would help him with his pranks if he was to gather objects of her intrigue with his surprisingly stealthy ways.

Yes, Naruto was her little brother as he was Sakura's.

Perhaps, she thought, one of the main reasons that she really accepted him was because he made Sakura smile more brightly. He added onto the little pinkette's happiness and that was all Saki could really hope for.

So even if Mebuki was only pretending to love her, Saki knew that she had Naruto now. He had come to love her in the short amount of time they knew each other, and she was okay with reciprocating that love. It didn't stop the random aches in her chest that weren't caused by a kick from her classmate, but it was enough to allow her to better ignore it.

Still, she couldn't help but feel annoyance with the fact that she was to supervise the little playdate the littler ones had conducted; it messed up her schedule for her training regime even if it was only a day.

Two days after the end of the school year and the date for the little trios' celebration of friendship had been set. Now Saki, Naruto and Sakura were making their way to the nearest park that had become the place they had decided to rendezvous at.

The elder Haruno was prepared for the day though, not allowing it to properly put a dent in her plans. She had already taken her morning dose of poison, though she felt a little bit crabby since it was a new type of poison as she had built an immunity to the previous one and this was only the fourth time she had taken the new poison. She'd already done her rounds of physical exercises along with going through basic katas and working on her kenjutsu, even reciting the signs for various genjutsu within her mind.

Of course, because they were set to leave around nine in the morning for the celebration, Saki had woken up at an obscene time in the morning to get through all of that and so her mood had become even worse even though her expression remained the same.

They knew though, since Sakura was her sister and Naruto was good at picking people's moods so they gave her space and even made her breakfast when they realised she hadn't eaten yet.

Saki cooling off slowly, so by the time they had made it to the park (which was rather far), she had calmed down enough not to abruptly snap at a random passer-by for whatever it was they would be doing that'd irritate her.

She wasn't sure if she was surprised or not when there were two boys with raven hair waiting for their arrival, the younger one noticeably excited to see his two friends whilst the elder one remained blank-faced as his onyx eyes were focused on her rather than her company.

The carminette kept her sedate pace whilst the blonde and pinkette hurried over to their Uchiha friend, Sakura's arms open wide once she was close enough to the other boy to clearly indicate her intentions.

Sasuke caught on immediately, his face reddening as he haughtily looked to the side. "It's improper for an Uchiha to hug someone." he supplied like it was one of the many rules he was forced to swallow simply because he was an Uchiha. It probably was, Saki thought. Sasuke chanced a glance to see that the pink-haired Haruno was lowering her arms as a disheartened expression overtook her face. The boy grimaced with guilt and reluctantly whispered, "I… fine… come on…" as he stepped forward and hugged the girl awkwardly. He made a small sound of surprise when Sakura giggled and hugged him back tightly, a sense of warmth wrapping around him until she released him.

Even without seeing, he knew that his brother was looking on with an amused gleam in his eyes and it further stoked the red of his cheeks but he was thankfully distracted by Naruto's rough pat on the back in greeting.

Sakura then turned towards the elder brother, her smile bright as she politely bowed in front of him again. "Hello again, Uchiha-san. I assume you had to supervise as well?" she greeted him, tilting her head as she looked at him with her shamrock gems.

"Hello, Haruno-san," he nodded in answer and acknowledgment, "Sakura-san, then." he corrected at her insistence. Itachi couldn't help it, his eyes shifted back onto the carminette and had to contain the surprise when he found a pair of jade eyes already staring into his own. It was highly unusual for a civilian, let alone someone younger than him to be able to meet his gaze head on without a hint of intimidation. Yes, some shinobi who felt confident in their abilities were able to maintain eye contact with him, but the clan heir knew that many felt that he had an air of unapproachability and intimidation that was only amplified through eye contact. He honestly felt that he didn't give off that kind of feeling on purpose, but it was to be expected with his reputation, he figured. The elder Uchiha nodded at her in greeting, his mind referring back to their first meeting.

She stared at him steadily, seeming to gauge something within her mind before she blinked and opened her mouth to speak. "I'm unsure of whether to call you Uchiha-san or Itachi-san." she admitted without shame, her words added onto the monotone they were said with, mentally threw the Uchiha heir off track.

He couldn't help the corner of his mouth tipping upwards and though she caught it, there was nothing to inform him of her thoughts. "The latter would be preferable," Itachi replied smoothly, "if I may be able to return the courtesy." he finished, stepping around his brother to move beside her as the trio had decided to leave the park in search of another destination with the two elder siblings following closely.

The Haruno nodded, "That's fine with me, Itachi-san." she assented as she watched the smaller forms of her sister and her friends, the younger Uchiha struggling to maintain his clan's demeanour as the other two were doing their best to bring out the child in him. Her gaze skimmed over the villagers' faces, their expressions varied as they took in the sight of the Uchiha heir who most likely didn't traverse through the streets often. Then she looked to the tall boy beside her, noticing how his expression betrayed nothing of his thoughts regarding the treatment as he kept a watchful eye on his little brother.

Itachi felt her gaze upon him more than he saw it, it was a calculating, piercing and unwavering look. He tilted his head so he could look down at her smaller form, taking in her stoic expression as she continued to stare at him, as if searching for something. They held each other's attention steadily and coolly until she blinked and turned back to facing the front whilst he stared at her for a few moments more.

Carmine was an odd colour for hair, though pink was even odder and there were those times when he saw a woman with green hair once. Admittedly, it was the pair of jades that dragged out his intrigue more than her other features.

They didn't allow him to read them properly. It wasn't in his nature to boast about his skills, but Itachi prided himself in being able to read people accurately. It was a skill that was required with the career of being a shinobi, even more so when it came to being an Uchiha. She was intelligent, that he had no doubt of even though they had barely exchanged five sentences and had only met twice in the span of two or three days. There was just a lack of being able to interpret was she was thinking, unlike the way he could tell what the villagers they passed were thinking simply by looking at their face.

The clan heir had to admit that Sasuke was correct, she did have similarities to their clan members. There was a grace in her stride, an air of unapproachability and the calculating gleam in her otherwise unreadable eyes. If her hair were a dark shade of raven and her eyes onyx, he would've figured she be an Uchiha with a simple glance. However, she lacked a crucial part of the Uchiha; arrogance. As far as he knew, she was a civilian, only a soon-to-be second generation ninja within her family. Eldest daughter of Haruno Kizashi, the jounin who was a genjutsu specialist and civilian Haruno Mebuki from Tetsu no Kuni.

He supposed he couldn't help himself, he had to check in with the backgrounds of those who would be interacting with Sasuke on a more frequent basis.

The elder Uchiha had to momentarily halt his thoughts as grown man had abruptly veered into their way, about to trip and most likely take them down too if they didn't move. He was about to grab the Haruno girl beside him when she swiftly and gracefully moved away before he could touch her, so he mimicked her actions as the man landed ungracefully on the dirt with dust particles flying around him. The two expressionless children looked down at him as the smaller one tilted her head.

"Are you alright?" she asked flatly to the man.

The adult frowned disapprovingly, "Of course not, I'm on the ground and covered in dirt." he grumbled as he moved to stand up and brush himself off as the girl spoke once again.

"That would be your fault as you are the one that tripped," she commented bluntly, causing the man to sputter indignantly as she looked at the ground as if looking for something, "I see nothing that would've caused you to lose your balance."

Itachi blinked at the unexpected bluntness of her words, furthering the impact by her dead tone. There was such a thing as a polite façade, something the clan heir had been taught due to his future role.

The man waved an irritated hand at her dismissively, turning and beginning to walk off as he muttered something about how annoying kids were. The Haruno and Uchiha resumed their walk, noticing how the trio had stopped at a stall not too far away so they didn't have to increase their pace to catch up.

She tilted her head to look up at him once again, face neutral but the depths of her eyes stating she knew what he was doing. He deduced that he could tell only because she let him and respect increased steadily within him for this girl.

"I admit, it is quite unusual for me to be under the subtle analysation that I usually bestow on others." Saki admitted honestly and rather impassively, watching as his eyes widened the slightest in surprise at her straightforward words before they returned to their original state. "Although, I haven't seen the need to be subtle when it comes to my analysation with you. You're intelligent enough to know as well as I assume you'd be used to such scrutinising by now." she continued softly, moving closer to him as a hurrying woman nearly collided into her as she passed.

Itachi noted that she smelled of medicinal herbs and flowers just before she moved away from him. For a while, he didn't respond as they traversed the streets, something that she didn't seem to be bothered by. He had the feeling she knew he would answer her eventually. As well, the elder Uchiha was surprised at her partiality to bluntly voicing her thoughts since he could relate to her in quite a few ways so far… but he wasn't one that would speak his mind so straightforwardly, perhaps in half-truths but usually nothing more.

"I'll stop if it makes you uncomfortable," he finally said softly as the two of them stopped since the three in front of them had once again stopped at a stall.

The carminette merely shook her head, "I'll still be analysing you and I was merely stating my opinion. I feel as though you'll simply attempt to be more discreet, as I would assume it's in your very nature to examine those you haven't come into contact with before." her eyes remained on Sakura, who was in the process of defusing the two boys who were about to argue again. "If you want," then her eyes shifted to meet his onyx depths, "we could simply be more blunt about this and allow the other to ask questions."

This girl was an enigma, Itachi decided. He nodded his assent, his interest in her increasing and a slight wisp of a smile upon his lips as he stared down at her. "That is acceptable." he replied, noting that the corner of her lips were upturned slightly as well. The minute change expression strangely made her features softer.

They shared a comfortable silence that Itachi hadn't truly experienced before until they both sat at a park bench shaded by a nearby tree's leaves. His little brother and his friends having decided to play at one of the more secluded parks in the village.

"What's it like?" she asked, causing the Uchiha to glance at her with a silent desire for her to elaborate as she returned the glance. "Being the Uchiha clan heir, the 'pride of the clan' as I so hear." she elaborated, and Itachi might've thought she meant to say that with a wry tone if it wasn't so dead.

He was one that would usually adapt quickly, so the soon-to-be eleven-year-old thought it was high time he stop being surprised by her unorthodox ways. It was a first to be asked what it was like being the clan heir as a way of getting to know him, but for some reason, Itachi found it refreshing. The next few minutes were silent between them, but she waited patiently for his answer and he was mildly grateful that she wouldn't pressure him for a quick response.

When his soft, monotonous voice drew her attention from the trio to him, he looked up to the trees that shaded them. "It's… isolated." he admitted so softly it was almost a whisper.

Saki nodded in understanding. "I suppose it would be. You've been placed in a spot no one can reach, not even your own clan. You're the heir of a prestigious clan, a prodigal talent amongst shinobi… a popular, handsome bachelor according to women that may be a tad too old for you. It would be hard for anyone to reach your level."

Itachi blinked. Her voice was in a deadpan that only increased his surprise at the unexpected words. She was merely stating facts, he knew, but that part about him being a handsome bachelor had thrown him off to the point that he wanted to admittedly laugh. There was a slight smile on her lips, telling him she knew it caught him off guard.

Then her gaze shifted to look at the grass in front of them. "I wonder if you're tired of it," she commented softly, the wind causing the end of her scarf tails to brush against him, "being seen as nothing more than a symbol of pride, of something many people will never be able to reach. I wonder if they'll see Uchiha Itachi; an unfortunate boy with thoughts and feelings or if they'll only ever see Uchiha Itachi; the prodigy and one of the best tools of Konohagakure." the depths of her dark jades were drawing him in when she turned back to him.

Itachi was at a loss for words. Something within his chest ached as it seemed to resonate with her words, but he couldn't identify it. What was he meant to say to that? She didn't know him, this was their second meeting and yet… she spoke as if she knew him. An enigma, his mind echoed once again. "What makes you think I'm unfortunate?" the Uchiha murmured in question, unable to look away from her face as he felt like he was searching for something, but not knowing what. His onyx gems narrowed in on the small, somewhat sad smile that graced her features.

"From the moment you were born, you gained the title of 'heir'. You were born to be above everyone else, to be shaped above everyone else. Burdens you didn't ask for were thrust upon you from the moment you left your mother's womb. Expectations of you hovered over you before you could even walk, you were born to be controlled and shaped into a tool by those you were bound to. I may be crossing my boundaries, but that is what I believe makes you unfortunate." her words were as piercing and clear as her gaze on him was.

This time, he couldn't stop his shocked expression from appearing on his face, couldn't correct his expression for a while as he stared at the small, carmine-haired girl that had managed to stun and surprise him more times than his own father could.

Her smile turned bitter as she averted her eyes to look ahead, seemingly at nothing. "That's just my bias opinion, though. I don't know the true inner workings of your clan, but I know enough to form some kind of opinion… it's just that though; an opinion… so I hope you don't take it too hard. I don't know what it's like to be you, Itachi-san, but I assume that I wouldn't like it in the least. Perhaps I would become stronger at a faster rate… but at what price, I wonder." she stated, tilting her head towards her approaching sister.

Because of the little pinkette's approach, he wasn't able to form a reply… but he wasn't sure if he would've been able to otherwise. He couldn't understand why her words impacted him so, why they stirred something within him that he didn't realise was there. She made it sound as if his life was something sad instead of the usual reverence he received from strangers. Why did it sound like she pitied him? It was such a strange thing, to be pitied. Itachi wasn't sure what to think of it. The whole experience with her was disconcerting, if somewhat refreshing as well.

Onyx eyes blinked when his vision took in the sight of two dango sticks held in front of him. His gaze shifted from the sweets to her face, noticing that it had returned to its original unreadable state.

"Would you like them?" she asked tonelessly as he noticed she held another two in her other gloved hand.

Itachi nodded, taking the two dango sticks from her hand. "Thank you." he thanked her softly, staring at the colourful sweets with a thoughtful expression. He felt like he had thanked her for more than just the dango.

He saw her nodding out of the corner of his eye, "You're welcome." she replied just as quietly.

Silence ensued as they ate their sweets, consumed in their thoughts. Itachi had just finished the first dango stick when he realised something; he wanted to know all there was to know of the seven-year-old girl named Haruno Saki.

* * *

**OMAKE - Saki's Fifth Birthday**

The fifteenth of February was a day that Saki wasn't sure if she liked it or not. Certainly, she enjoyed the way her little sister would be more excited than her and how her father always made it to her birthday regardless of his other duties.

But Saki never really cared for her birthday. There wasn't a need to spend all this money to pay for decorations and writing down invitations to people whom she didn't care for or even know. Her fourth birthday was luckily spent in Tetsu no Kuni, where the guests were much more reserved in the celebrations and she was allowed to isolate herself until one of her cousins would bring over sweets to share with her. Her fifth birthday would be spent in Konoha, where her extended family from her father's side resided.

They bought her useless presents such as frilly clothing or toys and then as if rubbing salt in her wounds, they would attempt to touch her so familiarly as if they had a right.

Not to mention, her mother had thought it would be nice if they invited the children from the nearest orphanage to come celebrate as well. Why the woman thought it was a good idea, Saki didn't know but at least Sakura would have more children to play with.

The young carminette was currently hiding out by sitting on the roof of her house with a book gifted to her by her father for her birthday. She could hear the loud chatter down below and calls from her mother but she ignored it. The less time Saki spent with those strangers, the better her mood would be. She also didn't appreciate that the children had been wanting to play ninja with her, when she was not the kind of child who would play in general.

The birthday girl blinked in surprise when her father appeared beside her, a gust of wind brushing against her cheeks at his arrival. There was the usual jovial smile on his lips as he looked down at her, then he moved to sit beside her on the roof, allowing her heart to calm down. She took his seating beside her as a sign to mark the page she was up to within her book and close it.

"You're mother's furious, you know." he chuckled light-heartedly, then cringing at the sound of a crash underneath them and a high-pitched war cry. "You're _leafing _her hanging."

Saki frowned disapprovingly at the horrible use of a pun, but she had grown used to her father's eccentric ways. "I didn't ask for a birthday party filled with strangers who annoyingly attempt to touch my cheeks and gift me nothing practical. I also didn't ask for the children of the orphanage to come either." she replied irritably, drawing her knees up to her chest and staring into the sky.

Kizashi sighed with a resigned smile. "They're here to celebrate your birthday Saki, they've all come to see you."

"I don't believe that." his daughter retorted. "I don't believe they care at all, they were invited and so they politely came even though they don't even know me and have no intention of knowing me. Not all your relatives are as kind as you, tou-san."

The jounin wondered when his eldest became so cynical at the tender age of five, but he still loved her anyway. "Sakura's looking for you." he supplied with a grin, knowing it would persuade the small carminette.

Saki's eyes narrowed in irritation, before she released a weary sigh and stood up stiffly. "Fine," she bit out, walking over to the edge where the hidden ladder to the roof was located. As she turned to climb down it, her jade-coloured gems stared hard at him. "I hold no responsibility for the possible mishaps that occur from here on out." she warned him, before disappearing from view.

Kizashi laughed heartily.

It turned out that Saki had made an acquaintance with one of the orphans, who had light blue hair and lemon eyes. He followed her around and had dubbed her 'Stoneface-chan', something that she seemed to be unaffected by, but it seemed that the carminette made no attempt to escape the orphan boy's close proximity.

Then, it seemed the boy had managed to coerce her into playing a prank on the adults after one of them had managed to pinch her cheeks and completely ruin her already plummeting mood.

The Haruno male had to admit that the sight was a hilarious one, even if most of his family members had left angrily and his wife was furious with the outcome. Saki merely sat at the table, focused on eating her black forest cake with Sakura and remaining the ever innocent child, whilst Mebuki had no idea who pulled the prank off and pissed off her guests.

Kizashi winked with a smile when his eldest caught his eye, and for the first time in a while, he saw a genuine smile appear on her face that he just wanted to cuddle her.

* * *

**A/N: **Reviews are love. Reviews are life. It's never ogre. Thanks to my beta; Coq-on-Face the Third.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Hello. Been a while, hasn't it? I've recently heavily revised this story, so I highly recommend you reread it from the beginning again. There has been quite a few changes. Thank you for your patience. Enjoy.

* * *

"Takahiro?" a soft voice questioned, a pair of jade-coloured eyes looking at the familiar face.

A small smile appeared on her associate's face as Saki had opened the door of her house, her gaze blank but from the tilt of her head and slight furrow of her brow, she was confused as to why he had come. She was also wondering why he knew her address when she had never brought him over or told him where she lived.

"Hey, Saki." he greeted, moving one of his hands to scratch that back of his neck. "How have you been?"

"I've been fine." the Haruno girl replied stoically, before stepping back and opening the door further as a gesture to let him in. "Come in. I was about to make tea."

Takahiro nodded, stepping into the Haruno household and removing his shoes before following the carminette past the dining room and into the kitchen. His aqua eyes took in his surroundings, finding the house to be rather homely and neat compared to his own place.

He watched as his… friend (?) silently made tea with a frown. He'd always wondered about their relationship, he'd first met her when he had injured his hand at the academy and she appeared out of nowhere and just silently mended it. She didn't say anything until he thanked her and then asked for her name.

Naoki was always with her, and Takahiro had it ingrained within his mind that whenever there was carmine, light blue would always be near. Despite the fact that Saki herself said that the orphan boy was dangerous, their peers were rather partial to him as he seemed to know exactly what to say to the right person and it made him rather popular. The eggplant-coloured boy knew that the other boy immediately seemed less accommodating when Takahiro decided to approach Saki with the blue-haired boy near.

He wasn't the brightest of their class, but he wasn't dumb so he could tell that Naoki wasn't keen on allowing him into their small circle. It took time, but eventually Naoki seemed to at least accept him as part of the group after some negotiating with Saki.

Takahiro was more partial to Saki, even if she was blunt with her opinions and didn't seem to care whether Naoki was being a terror or not. She healed his wounds as best she could, which was far more than what his peers or even his father could do.

She told him to be careful when he trained, sometimes she would allow the two boys to eat some of her lunch. The young Oshiro had come to see the two of them as friends even if neither had outwardly stated such.

"What did you come here for, Takahiro?" Saki inquired softly, breaking the comfortable silence as she brought him a cup of tea and sat across from him.

Takahiro blinked, snapping out of his thoughts as he focused on her sipping her tea with a grace he could never pull off. "I wanted to come and tell you that tou-san was looking for helpers at his shop, and since I knew you wanted to know some more about weapons… I guess it seemed like a good opportunity, especially since we're on holidays." he replied, looking to the side as he picked up his tea and blew on it.

She blinked. "Ah, I see. Thank you, I would like to help out. A good learning experience, I believe. Though I hope he doesn't mind me being unable to carry out some of the more taxing tasks."

The aqua-eyed boy smiled. "Don't worry, I've got that covered. He'll pay you as well for your time, so it's a good part-time job for the holidays." he took a gulp of his tea. "He's also been wanting to meet you for a while now."

"Will Naoki be there?" the carminette asked, she looked thoughtful for a second. "I'm assuming that you learned where I lived from him, so he must've pestered you to tell him why you were visiting." she assumed, smiling slightly as she eyed his facial expression.

Takahiro was grimacing at the memory and at her deduction skills. "He was going to follow me, but his guardian told him to finish up his chores."

Saki nodded in understanding. "I won't be surprised if he manages to get one of the other orphans to do his work for him. If I could, I would attempt to stop him from being an irritant to them… but he'd more than likely ask for something outrageous in return for leaving them alone." she sighed, taking another sip of her tea. "I'm surprised to find that he hasn't visited at all during the holidays, he must be busy."

Her classmate noticed how her face scrunched up slightly as if the tea tasted terrible. He looked down at his own, but it tasted rather nice to him. Of course, since his father was terrible at making tea, it wasn't hard to beat the quality. "That's Naoki for you, I guess. You're right, he'll be helping out too." when she took another sip and the expression appeared again, he asked, "Is the tea that bad?"

Her eyes shifted to land on him. "I put in one of my poisons into the mix," she told him stoically, ignoring his alarmed expression, "I'm building up my tolerance. The kind of poison I'm taking is harmless by itself, but when added into liquid it becomes poisonous. I put medicinal herbs in yours."

Takahiro merely nodded dumbly, not really understanding. He wasn't about to ask why she was poisoning herself, but he had enough faith in her to know that she wasn't about to kill herself from taking too much. Saki was too smart to do such a thing. "I see… like training?" he inquired.

"Mmm," she hummed agreeably, "I wish to make myself immune to all kinds of poisons, since I intend to work with them in the future. How is your training going, Takahiro?" Saki questioned, her eyes scanning over what she could see of him to check of injuries.

He smiled a little, touched by her subtle notions of caring. "It's going well, tou-san and oji-san's intense as always. I recently met a man named Might Gai, who could a member of our family with him also having a passion for taijutsu. Gin-sensei is nearly always with him too." Takahiro revealed, finishing his tea and gently placing it on the table. He couldn't taste the medicinal herbs at all, which he usually found to be bitter. The tea was pleasantly sweet.

"I know of them," Saki replied quietly, finishing her own tea and getting up to wash both the cups, "_'Konoha's Sublime Green Beast of Prey'_ and _'Demon Wielder of a Thousand Weapons'_. Rather intense titles, I think. Kobayashi-san trains you as well?"

"Sometimes. Gin-sensei, tou-san and oji-san are close since tou-san is the one who provides him with all his weaponry. Gai-san claims that Gin-sensei has been his eternal rival since they were children." Takahiro laughed a little as he remembered the conversation. "One time, Hatake Kakashi came in when Gin-sensei was around and decided to thank him for bringing Gai-san's attention away from him all those years ago. Hatake-san and Gin-sensei seem to get along well too, from what I've seen."

"It seems your store gets a lot of famous shinobi coming by," Saki noted wiping her gloves free of the water on them, silently appreciating the idea of getting waterproof gloves. It was always a pain when her gloves got wet, it was like having to wear wet socks and walk in them.

The young Oshiro nodded, standing up from his seat and pushing the chair into the dining table. "There's a few other weaponsmiths in the village, but our one has the highest quality weapons so a lot of shinobi who can afford to come there. The wares are expensive, but quality costs and no one complains unless they want to get punched."

Saki nodded, stepping past him and causing her associate to intake the scent of flowers and herbs. "I was about to leave for the library just before you arrived, but I can make the visit to the blacksmiths now." she said, putting on her shoes.

Her classmate's gaze shifted around, noticing the lack of sound inside the house. "No one's home except you?" he asked curiously.

"No, Sakura and Naruto are visiting Sasuke whilst kaa-san is at the tailors. Tou-san is on another mission for another week." she explained, reaching into her pocket to retrieve a key after opening the door.

Takahiro put his own shoes on, before stepping out and allowing Saki to close the door and lock it. The boy blinked as he noticed a familiar form making their way towards the Haruno household.

"It's Naoki." he stated neutrally.

Saki hummed idly, walking past her dark fence and continuing forward as if she was intent on ignoring the orphan boy's presence. Her companion realised that she did that often, but Naoki always seemed unperturbed and then they interacted the way they usually did.

The Mizushima boy didn't take long to catch up to them, his pale hand grabbing Saki's gloved one and holding it to his lips in greeting as jade eyes stared at their joined hands with an inscrutable look. The Oshiro boy frowned at the intimate act.

"My day has gotten better now that I see your face, Saki. I would've visited if I wasn't busy." he complimented her, smiling that sly smile of his as he then turned to look at the third member of their trio. "Nasu-kun." he greeted.

"You." Takahiro replied, stepping around to Saki's left so that she was in the middle of them.

Saki slowly extracted her hand from his grip, never allowing herself to be touched for more than a minute as they walked down the street. "Naoki. You didn't give the others too much trouble, did you?" she greeted back indifferently.

The blue-haired boy placed a hand to his chest in mock hurt. "You wound me, Saki. I would never trouble my_ irritating_ little housemates." he replied, his voice harshening as he emphasised 'irritating' before it returned to its casual, higher tone.

The Haruno girl didn't seem to acknowledge the peculiar behaviour other than glancing at him briefly. "You're going to move out soon, aren't you?"

"Yes," Naoki confirmed, idly playing with one of her scarf tails as they deftly passed fellow villagers, "as soon as I'm finished filling out the paperwork and it gets processed, I'll be moving into the apartment building near the orphanage, where other orphans from the same orphanage stay." he explained, absent-mindedly remembering that her scarf was nearly the same shade of blue that his hair was.

"So you'll still be near…" Saki murmured, her tone dead so there was no way to tell interpret what she meant by the comment.

Takahiro frowned as he watched Naoki's lemon eyes gleam darkly as he eyed the female of their trio. "I would never move to a place that is far from you." the Mizushima boy stated firmly, like there was nothing that would stop him from being near her.

"That's ominous." the dark-haired male muttered.

"Looks like Nasu-kun is learning big words, I'm so proud." Naoki chuckled with amusement.

"Shut up, it's not normal for seven-year-olds to have such a large amount of words in their head. You two are just smarter than the average kid." Takahiro retorted, his annoyance flaring.

"Saki's the smartest out of us two. I just find ways to do the littlest amount of work possible whilst still getting good grades. A lot of things don't interest me."

The said girl hummed non-committedly, apparently not very interested in their conversation as she had somehow whipped out a book and started reading it without their knowledge. It took skill to read and walk without bumping into anything.

"Knowledge is power, Naoki. You would know this."

Not for the first time, Naoki seemed to get that look that was mostly unreadable as he stared at the carminette, but Takahiro thought it was similar to tenderness.

"You understand me the most, Saki." the enigmatic boy responded softly, kissing the tail of her scarf. "Never change."

* * *

Takahiro's father was a giant of a man with an impressive build and an intimidating aura. He bore the same tan skin as his son, the same aqua eyes and the same eggplant-coloured hair. There were scars here and there, each holding their own tale.

Masculine, would be the word Saki would use to describe him. He dwarfed her and her associates, so he had to stared down at them which only added to the intimidation of his presence.

However, Saki was never one to cower under the gaze of someone bigger than her. She nodded at him in acknowledgment. "It's nice to meet you, Oshiro-san." she greeted politely, retaining her monotone all the while and staring into his eyes unflinchingly.

He seemed to scrutinise her, completely ignoring the two males as his sole focus was on her. They had a staring match for a while, in which he didn't blink and the small child wasn't about to dry her eyes out so she did.

Then, he kneeled down in front of her, still towering over her despite the lowered position. He placed a large hand on her tiny shoulder, which she would've skirted away from if her clothes weren't there to protect her.

"You have a strong aura about you, it's good to see such promise in the youth of our village." he intoned, his voice a deep baritone that if Saki was being dramatic, there would be lots of vibration as he spoke. "It's nice to meet you, Saki-san. I've heard many admirable things about you from my son, who says you patch him up whenever you're able."

She nodded stoically. "I'm in the process of learning medical ninjutsu, Takahiro has only been kind enough to allow me to test my skills on him, Oshiro-san." the small Haruno replied easily.

A kind smile formed on his exceptionally masculine features as he gazed at her. "Please, call me Takashi. I'm glad to know you've started working on your goals at a young age. Too many youths lazing about, thinking that the life of a shinobi is an easy one. The recent change in the academy program will hopefully whip them into shape."

"I agree that the newest academy program is more beneficial than it used to be, Takashi-san. Too many died prematurely in the last war because of poor preparation. I wait for the day they'll approve of genin teams to consist of battle medic-nins." Saki responded, finding the fact that he was treating her less like a child and more like an intelligent being endearing.

His sharp, bright eyes sparkled with approval. "Such potential! You've done well to find her, my son!" Takahiro's father chuckled, removing his hand from Saki's shoulder and using his other one to roughly pat his son's shoulder. The impacting sound was loud enough that Saki needed to lean a little away.

The smaller Oshiro took the rather rough pat like a boss, making no indication of feeling pain as a small smile appeared on his face. "Thanks, tou-san." he replied sincerely, glancing at her with what seemed to be something akin to pride at being her friend.

Something pulled at the Haruno's heart and she blinked, unsure of what the slightly painful sensation meant.

After a moment, Takashi found it prudent to do the same strange assessment to Naoki, who kept his smile but never made the move of flowering his words to try and win over his conversation partner. He knew that it wouldn't work on such a man, so there was more Naoki than there usually was around strangers or people he wasn't close with.

"You're exude a dangerous aura," the giant man deduced after a moment, his arms folded as he stared down at the light-haired boy, then his eyes shifted minutely to the carminette, "perhaps, you're being like this to protect the one you don't want to leave, hm? Scare away other people to keep what's precious to you close?"

Then the smile faded, lemon eyes glinted darkly that looked ominous even on a seven-year-old boy. "You're perceptive, Oshiro-san." he stated, his voice still soft in volume, but hard in tone. "But I thought it's only natural to want to keep what's precious to you close?"

The older male was unperturbed, merely raising a brow as he further studied the orphan. "When you've been around as long as I have, it becomes second nature, Naoki-san. Just because you care about them, doesn't mean that you can lock them in a cage keep them to yourself. Hopefully, you make the right choices in the future, before you lose what you gained."

_'What an ominous message,' _Saki thought, asking questions as Takashi began to show them around, telling them what they would be doing as they worked there.

Naoki was silent. A silent Naoki was a bad sign, as he was rather sociable in a charismatically sociopathic way. He seemed to be deep in thought, giving her more acute looks than usual then looking away. The smile was gone and it was almost surreal that he looked much older.

When Takahiro went off to work on the more taxing tasks whilst the two of them were to do simpler, smaller tasks for now, Saki took the opportunity to speak with the other boy.

"He must've struck a nerve," the Haruno girl commented bluntly, at ease even when his hard gaze whipped around to land on her, "you've barely said a word for an hour, very much unlike you."

Naoki moved closer, his smile still absent as he stared at her. "It did," he agreed with a whisper, moving closer until she could feel his breath on her face. His eyes bore into hers. "Just really intrigues me how accurate he was," he grabbed a lock of her hair and played with it absent-mindedly, "never met me before, never spoke to me before and he saw past my barriers and right into my core. It's like I laid out all my cards for him to see…"

Saki remained silent, barely moving as her associate snaked his free arm around her around and pulled her close, his hand that was playing with her hand dropping to wrap around her waist too. He held her close and nuzzled her scarf where the base of her neck was, causing the girl to stiffen even more than she previously was.

She was rarely hugged, and had never been hugged by Naoki before. She never had someone nuzzle her neck either, and it was entirely foreign and she could feel the possessiveness.

"You understand me more than he does though, you knew what I was like and accepted me anyway… you probably shouldn't have…" he whispered against her ear, eliciting a flinch and an unseen smile. "I'm never going to let you go, Saki… you somehow managed to integrate yourself into my life, where I can't see anything without you near."

It was a vine-like promise as Naoki held her tighter even as she made no move to hug him back, her jade depths merely staring at the far wall with dark, unreadable eyes. Perhaps it was a mistake to allow him to get comfortable within her life, but she couldn't do anything now… maybe she didn't want to do anything. Some part of her told her that despite the fact that he was a danger in the making, he was still a child like her. Was he born this way, or was it because of the environment he lived in?

A small, gloved hand reached up to untangle his arms from her slowly, gently until he retracted and stepped back a little. He grabbed onto her, staring at their joined hands.

Saki stared at him. "Are you showing me an illusion, Naoki?" she asked softly, "Are you trying to make me care for you so that I won't leave you? Will you hurt me more than I can endure?"

His lemon eyes stared at her in return, the emotions in them less guarded than they usually were. "You're scared," he noted, "but you should know, Saki… despite the way I am, I'm loyal to you." he stated firmly, eyes glinting. "I may smile falsely at people, may manipulate them into thinking that I'm something I'm not, I may see a lot of people as nothing but moving objects a lot of the time…" he brought her hand to his cheek, lowering his eyelids as he continued to stare at her with a comfortable gaze. "You're in an entirely different league, I don't know what it is, under normal circumstances I would've left you alone, you're strong-willed, almost impossible to manipulate or even read… but I stayed for as long as I have, never failing to find you as interesting as the day I met you."

"Elaborate planning," she supplied monotonously, still reluctant to buy into his words. If she learned anything from Mebuki, it was that words could be empty.

His expression scrunched up in annoyance as he continued to hold her hand to his cheek. "So paranoid…" he muttered, "I can change, you know. Not entirely, but I can promise you that I don't intend to make you suffer."

"Even if you find the prospect appealing?" she asked, tilting her head slightly as she continued to scrutinise him.

He laughed, a genuine smile upon his lips. "See? You know me well, you're cute and it makes me want to hurt you." his expression shifted into frustration. "But then this _thing _in my head keeps telling me not to, because you'll leave me, because even if I try to tie myself to you forever, you'll be able to get rid of me if you wanted. You've done something to me, Saki." he stated darkly, at least as dark as a child could.

Still a child, Saki thought. Malleable. Did she have the right to attempt to change him to her liking? She was better at reading him than he was of her, like how she knew when he asked her questions about what she was thinking, it was a genuine question and not a simple query to see if she would say what he wanted her to. Maybe it was because he was more in tune with his emotions than what the books said about sociopaths, because he was still young and therefore his environment would play a large part in his mental development.

"You'll always be truthful to me," Saki finally said, her jade eyes piercing into his own, "you'll be entirely, wholeheartedly honest to me for the rest of our lives. Despite myself, I've come to find that you are a constant in my life and I'm disinclined to remove you from it at the moment."

His face lit up, before he furrowed his brow. "Are you implying that we'll be together for the rest of our lives, Saki?" he asked, so quietly that even though she was so close, she still had to lean forward to hear.

She sighed heavily, looking at their joined hands. "As long as you keep your word and remain loyal to me, as long as you remain truthful to me and as long as you don't give me a reason to kill you." she replied, voice dead but her eyes were serious as she stared at him. Far more serious than he'd ever seen her act.

Naoki realised that he would actually die by her hand if he betrayed her, that she would probably slit his throat with that blank gaze of hers and then move on with her life. His own expression was neutral as he registered that fact into his head. He didn't fear death, far from it, but the mere thought of her simply moving on with her life without him being a part of it was… infuriating. Sometimes, he wondered who the real potential monster was.

"You want me to swear my allegiance to you, Saki-hime?" the orphan boy questioned with a quirked brow and a wry smile. "Fine," he stepped down onto one knee, still holding her hand as he peered up at her.

She simply stared down at him, seeing through him more than he would've initially liked. "I swear myself to you. I'll be unbearably honest with you, I'll be loyal to you even after I die, I'll kill everyone that you see as an enemy, so that you may never leave me." he pressed his lips to her gloved hand, all the while keeping eye contact with her. She was too exciting, too interesting for him to let go.

The oath was like something from a children's game of playing pretend knights and princesses, dramatic and weird but entirely too serious for it to be a simple game.

Saki could shape him into a suitable associate, so that she could make use of him, so that even if she decided to take a darker route in the future… she wouldn't be alone. A small, bitter smile formed on her expression as she requested for Naoki to stand up. Loneliness was a horrible leech.

"You're too dramatic," she commented softly, brushing past him to grab one of the clipboards to take note of the materials that were delivered the other day. They'd already wasted enough time dealing with Naoki's mental dilemma. "Naoki…" she started, writing something down as her mind whirled with thoughts, "do you want to live with me?"

When she was met with silence, Saki turned to find Naoki with the most shocked expression she'd seen on him. She blinked.

"Are you serious?" he asked with disbelief, stepping forward whilst trying to school his expression.

"I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't." the carminette replied.

He tilted his head, holding out his hand for her. She took it silently. "Are you sure you want me to? What about your parents?" he asked, looking down and rubbing his thumb across the gloves with a perplexed expression.

"I can convince them to foster you," Saki stated seriously, not allowing Naoki to find any trace of hesitance in her voice, "I want you to be invaluable to me, and I want myself to be invaluable to you. For that to happen, I need you near me."

His eyes lifted to stare at her, finding himself frustrated at how much emotion he was expressing to her. For a while, he'd thought that he lacked a great many emotions. "You're dangerous," he whispered, "but I like it." Naoki smiled. "Yes. I want to live with you, you're far better company than the other orphans."

"Good." Saki murmured, removing her hand from his and turning around once more. "Now we've wasted enough time talking, let's get our work done."

Naoki laughed a little, "You're like mini-adult, Saki. We're children you know, you should slow down." he suggested, though went with her order and began to work on his task.

"Children…" the small Haruno whispered under her breath, quiet enough that only she heard it. That's right, wasn't it? She was seven years old, not even a decade old yet. Children weren't meant to consume poison to build immunity by their own will, or have their possibly sociopathic associate swore allegiance to them like some drama novel. Sometimes, she wondered what it would've been like if she wasn't as intelligent as she was.

Would her mother love her then? Would her sister still love her? Would she still be Saki?

An amused huff escaped her lips. Saki was tired from all this thinking that came with being smarter than the average child, from being paranoid about the company she kept, about her plans for the future. But she wouldn't change things.

It's not like she could, anyway.

* * *

Takashi's place had a weapons shop at the front, with the weapons and various other things on display with the front desk. The back was half a forge and half a storage place, with stairs leading up to the Oshiro residence where Takashi, Takeshi and Takahiro slept, ate and showered.

Saki was designated to work at the front, where she tended to customers and read her books whenever she could. She had taken to her job well, providing good suggestions for weapons depending on the customer's build and the like with help from the expert. She met a few noteworthy shinobi, but ultimately didn't think more on them as she got absorbed in her books before tending to another customer.

Takahiro and Naoki did other things in the back, helping Takashi when he was working on making more weapons. Saki had asked why he hadn't hired adults to help, but apparently Takashi's brother was away on a trip to gather more materials and he was the one who usually helped out.

It didn't really answer Saki's question on why he chose to have the help of children, but she let it slide. It was beneficial for her, anyway.

She met Kobayashi Gin, who was a tall man with a solid build, but was ultimately more underwhelming in terms of appearance when it came to Might Gai. Instead of the _ugly _green jumpsuit and orange legwarmers, Gin wore the standard jounin wear with an additional utility belt and a multitude of scrolls with a giant scroll tied to his back. His stride was confident and without strain despite the fact that the scrolls looked heavy, so it said a lot for his strength.

His hair was golden and long bangs covered his right eye entirely, hiding a good portion of his long face. His visible eye was half-lidded and bore three red circles underneath, with a long nose and thin lips that sometimes yielded sharp, shark-like teeth. His skin was pale, from what Saki could tell, which was lucky since his hair might've caused a tan line which would've been amusing. He was young, handsome enough to draw attention to himself but his aura seemed to put people at a distance.

"You must Haruno Saki, Takahiro's friend, yeah?" he said the first time they met, his eye boring into her form as she stared at him from her seat behind the counter. "Heard about you, says you got some skill in medical ninjutsu, impressive for your age." his voice was deep and husky.

She tilted her head. "Thank you," she replied monotonously, but with sincerity, "it's not often I'm praised by famous shinobi, so it means a lot, Kobayashi-san."

"You're welcome, but call me Gin, yeah. Without the honorific, it irritates me." he insisted, leaning against the counter to continue to stare at her through a half-lidded eye.

Saki frowned slightly at the request to call him by such familiar terms upon their first meeting. "… Alright, Gin. I'd like to extend the same courtesy, though I'm assuming you were going to simply call me my name without my permission." she commented, bookmarking her page before closing her book.

He smiled, revealing the sharp teeth. "Perceptive of you, Saki. You going to do the crash course at the end of your year, yeah?" he asked, seeming genuinely interested which was strange for her.

"Mm," she hummed in confirmation, "I feel it's more efficient for me if I were to go through with it."

He stared at her for a moment longer, like he was affirming something within his mind before he blinked and pulled away from the counter, only to jump over it. "You're a smart kid, I have no doubt that the roots will try and claim you, yeah." he commented cryptically, causing her to narrow her eyes at him before he waved and stepped into the back to find Takashi. "Later, Saki."

_'He was telling me something,' _Saki thought to herself, standing up to address the customer that had brought their items to her, _'I won't know until the end of my year though, so best not think too much on it.' _

Once she dealt with the customer, she stepped into the back to see Takashi and Gin conversing with each other and began to walk over to them.

"Ah, Saki-chan," Takashi greeted, turning to face her, "what is it that you needed?"

She stopped at the right place so that she didn't need to break her neck trying to look at his face. "I need you to bring the Hyuuga's order to the front desk, please. They'll be coming sometime today." she explained, looking to the clock on the wall. Nearly lunch time.

"That can be done, I'll bring it out shortly." the giant man responded, and the carminette nodded, turning away to go back to the front desk.

When she went out to the front, there were two people at the counter whom she recognised as members of the Hyuuga clan. She recognised the male adult to be the head of the clan, Hyuuga Hiashi who made appearances sometimes around the village. The smaller one was his daughter, Hyuuga Hinata, who was in Sakura's class.

Hinata was small, but she held the grace of a person befitting of her status. Her dark hair was in a hime-style cut, which was long and reached just past her lower back, a hair tie a few inches before the end of her hair. She wore a light hoodie with her clan's symbol on her sleeves and dark navy pants that were baggy until they reached her knees, where they tightened and then slid into her shinobi sandals.

The Hyuuga heiress gave her a shy smile, which reminded Saki of Sakura back when the pinkette was still coming out of her shell. The carminette allowed herself to smile slightly in response, before she made eye contact with Hinata's father and nodded at him in acknowledgment.

He scrutinised her with his pupiless, lavender eyes that she continued to stare at unflinchingly. After a few long moments of silence, he nodded.

"I've just asked Takashi-san to bring out your order, so please wait a moment while he does so." Saki said calmly, apparently unperturbed by the head Hyuuga's fierce examining of her being.

"I see." Hiashi replied stoically, never removing his gaze from her small stature. "You are Haruno Saki, correct?"

She blinked at him, before nodding in confirmation. "I assume my classmate, Hyuuga Neji has told you of me then?" the girl inquired, tilting her head. "I'm admittedly surprised you could recognise me even though I'm not of much significance."

"It is required that my nephew relay his experiences at the academy. You are often in them, it is not hard to make the connection when carmine hair is uncommon." the man responded impassively, revealing nothing of his thoughts. "He says you are skilled."

"Taijutsu isn't my favoured style, but I excel in other things."

Hinata shifted, "I-I've heard of y-you from S-Sakura-san." she commented softly, looking in different directions nervously. "S-She says nice t-things."

Saki smiled genuinely, which caused the heiress to blush when she made eye contact with the other girl. "I've heard of you too, Hyuuga-san. You're a prodigy, I hear."

Hiashi seemed to stand taller with pride. "It is only fitting of my daughter, the heiress of the Hyuuga clan to be such." he looked down at his daughter, with Saki noticing how his eyes softened upon setting his eyes on the small six-year-old. "I am a proud father."

Hinata positively beamed under the praise. "T-Thank you, chichi-ue! I'll do m-my best to s-succeed!"

Then Takashi made his appearance, holding Hiashi's order in his hand. "Hiashi-san, good to see you." he greeted the other man with a hand held out.

"You too, Takashi-san." the head Hyuuga replied, nodding as he took Takashi's hand and shook it firmly. He glanced to the carminette who was dwarfed by the other man's form. "I see you brought help. Is Takeshi-san away?"

"He's away on business," the weaponsmith confirmed, putting a hand on Saki's head in an affectionate manner, "Saki-chan here has been a great help. Now, here's your order; special kunai with a secret compartment in the handle for your healing ointment."

After a few small exchanges, the two Hyuuga had left swiftly, with the smaller one waving at Saki who reciprocated the action.

"Time for a lunch break, don't you think?" Takashi announced, placing his hands on his hips in an accomplished way.

Saki hummed. "I'll be cooking, Takashi-san. I still find it hard to believe you managed to make soup burst into flames." she grimaced at the memory, but was nonetheless impressed.

The older man simply laughed. "An accomplishment, if I do say so myself! But yes, it's recommended I leave the cooking to you and Hiro, I'd like to have something edible. Now come! Gin will be joining us."

* * *

Mebuki stared at her eldest daughter with a deep frown, who merely blinked at her impassively.

"You want me to foster that blue-haired orphan from the orphanage?" she repeated for what seemed like the tenth time. It was still completely unexpected of her daughter to outright ask her to foster a child, one of her friends; especially this daughter.

"Yes," Saki replied with the same answer she'd been giving for a while now, "Naoki's environment isn't good for him and I want him to be able to grow up in a good environment."

The blonde woman frowned even more. "You know there's an apartment made just for orphans to have an apartment of their own, yes?" she questioned dubiously, still trying to process the request.

The little Haruno nodded. "I know, but it's not optimal for him to live alone. Just like with Naruto, he'd be alone and by himself. Naruto would still be alone if we didn't practically adopt him into our family. I'm only asking that we do the same for Naoki." she explained. Now that Saki thought about it, it might be more efficient if Naruto moved to that apartment, where he would be closer.

Mebuki sighed. "Saki, I can't just bring in your friend to live with us. Your father and I provide well for us, but I'm not sure if we could afford to keep him."

"Just like Naruto, Naoki receives a weekly orphan's allowance. We already have the spare room and Naruto basically sleeps in Sakura's room." Saki's eyes lowered and her voice softened noticeably. "I just want Naoki to grow up in an environment where he can learn to trust and value the lives of others, kaa-san. I want to be there for him because no one else will." there was a sadness in her voice that Mebuki hadn't heard before, and it pulled at her heartstrings to hear that from her eldest.

The Haruno woman placed a gentle hand on her daughter's shoulder, causing the carminette's head to lift and stare at her. Mebuki took a deep breath. "Okay, Saki… I'll talk to your father about it, but you have to make sure that you look out for him, and clean out the room he'll be staying at. Alright? It's not set in stone, but if you really feel this is for the best, I'll try." she announced with a motherly smile.

Then Saki's mother's breath hitched when she saw the entirely foreign expression on the girl's youthful face. Saki was smiling; a soft, genuine curl of the lips that softened her features and gave her a more gentle aura.

Mebuki had to blink rapidly to rid herself of the oncoming tears. Her baby had smiled at her for the first time… and it was too overwhelming. This Naoki boy's life must've meant so much to Saki, if she was to smile like that in front of her.

The carminette stiffened when her mother abruptly hugged her tightly. She said nothing when her mother began to sob tears of joy, but her facial expression shifted back into its default face of stoicism.

Acting wasn't Saki's greatest skill, but apparently it wasn't that hard to fool her mother who was so deprived of seeing her eldest daughter's emotions shine through. Of course she needed Naoki to live with her, so she could keep a closer eye on him and commence with the loosely dubbed 'social experiment'.

Mebuki was great at acting though, the small Haruno girl thought wryly. She was so convincing in her act of sincerely caring, but Saki knew better… of course she knew better. If Saki was happy, Sakura was happy, and Sakura would welcome Naoki with open arms if it meant Saki's happiness. The woman couldn't say no, because it would hurt Sakura indirectly.

Naoki would have to keep his distance with Sakura and Naruto, though. That was a requirement of Saki convincing her parents to foster him. She wasn't going to allow him to try and corrupt them, definitely not Sakura.

A sigh escaped the little seven-year-old as she lifted a small hand to place it gently on the woman's back.

Hugging this woman didn't feel nice, the carminette repeated in her head. Believing this woman's act of loving her was a stupid move, she chanted mentally.

Saki closed her eyes.

_'It hurts.' _

* * *

The holidays had been a busy one.

Amongst training, studying, building immunity to poisons, working at the weaponsmiths, socialising with Naoki and Takahiro as well as her sister's group of friends, Saki barely had any time to just relax.

Sleep was a godsend, but she usually only had about four to five hours of sleep during weekdays and nine hours of sleep on weekends. Kizashi had warned her to keep tabs on her health because she was young but she also had a habit of keeping to her plans even if it meant she was exhausted. She still took a week off, but couldn't help but give into her need for progress.

Naoki had thrown out the paperwork to request that he'd live alone, and Saki's parents were in the process of figuring things out and setting things up for him. Her father had agreed to foster Naoki, but Saki didn't need to act to convince him, she wouldn't have been able to pull it off either. It was going to take a while for Naoki to actually move in, but he seemed patient.

It became a regular occurrence for him to visit and acquaint himself with her family, in which he acted more charmingly that he usually did with her, but it was to be expected since he needed her family to like him if he was to stay around.

In all honesty, if the carminette was to think of the idea of her blue-haired associate living with her a year ago, she might've chuckled. Letting a dangerous child like him into her home?

But it was happening. Naoki would become her partner, instead of her associate. It was hard to stop referring to him as an associate, but ever since that day where he laid his hidden emotions out in front of her, something had changed.

She was fond of him.

Despite the fact that he possibly had a budding mental disorder that could cause her trouble in the future, he was something that she wanted in her small life. Offering him to live with her was impulsive, which wasn't like her.

Yes, she was honest with her words, but she thought of them before she said them. There was the pros and cons of doing something, thinking about which way to go about something, thought was put into it. She'd barely thought of the downsides of having Naoki with her.

Was it a mistake? Was it going to be worth it? Could she handle it? She was making it more difficult for herself to get rid of him in the future if he did betray her. What happened to keeping people at a distance, she wondered? She'd already added at least three more people close to her in no time at all.

Saki brought her hand to her head as she sat against the corner of her bed, her back against the wall as the moonlight shone through her window. Sometimes, her thoughts kept her up at night, but she didn't study or train… she just let the thoughts come and go, or stick by if they were particularly annoying.

Her third year at the academy would begin as soon as the sun rose, her last year at the academy.

Of course, the small child thought. If she was to take the crash course at the end of the year, then she and Naoki would be seeing less of each other and she'd be less likely to influence him. So him living with her was beneficial. They'd still be close, and Saki would make time to visit Takashi and Takahiro whenever she could.

Her thoughts settled a little after that revelation, and she shifted to lay back down.

_'I can make this work.' _she thought tiredly, closing her eyes and allowing sleep to embrace her small form.

* * *

**A/N: **Reviews are love. Reviews are life. It's never ogre. Thanks to my beta; Coq-on-Face the Third.


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